Vehicle Burglary Statistics
The vast majority of burglaries take only a few minutes, if even that long. They’re not the elaborate heists that you’ve seen in the movies. These are crimes of opportunity, and you’ve created the opportunity by leaving the door unlocked.
According to police officer Greg Ellifritz, this trend is growing like crazy:
I’ve kept track of reports of the thefts from cars in the city where I work (an upper-class suburb with around 35,000 residents) for the last 30 days. While I earlier referred to them as “car break-ins” that is truly a mischaracterization. Here’s how the numbers work out:
Number of vehicles entered- 24
Unlocked vehicles- 20
Locked vehicles- 3
Unknown or unreported status- 1More than 83% of the vehicles with items stolen were unlocked! In only three cases did thieves actually break a window to steal something. In each of those cases, the item(s) stolen were expensive and clearly within view from the outside of the vehicle. You can safely assume that if there is nothing visible to steal in your car, thieves won’t break windows just to check. On the other hand, if you leave your doors unlocked, thieves will open the door and see what they can find. As the title of the article says: Lock your damn doors! If you don’t want your crap stolen, keep your doors locked and valuables out of sight.
Home Burglary Stats
That’s about the best explanation you can get, straight from a veteran officer who sees this on a daily basis. Home burglaries work almost exactly the same way:
We had at least four burglaries last month where thieves entered through an unlocked door. The standard M.O. for these burglars is to find a house that appears unoccupied. They’ll knock on the door and if no one answers, they will walk around the house looking for an unlocked entrance. If they find a door unlocked, they go inside.
The thieves go straight to the master bedroom and steal jewelry and all the small electronics they can gather on the way. They are in and out of the house in only a few minutes.
NEXT, let’s look at 9 Proven Ways to “Beef Up” Your Home Security…
Sponsored Content
5 Comments
2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
- How to Pick Open a MasterLock in Less Than 10 Seconds [VIDEO] – Patriot Caller
- Personal Security is More Important You Realize - Home Security News
Comments are closed.
tell me more
What kind of fool doesn’t lock doors??? My house doors are locked 24/7. Even my storm doors are locked. We have wooden rods in place to prevent opening of patio doors. My backyard fence gates have padlocks. I live in nice neighborhood which I view as making us more of a target because we might have something worth stealing. Since I’ve been unemployed for the last two years, the best a baddie would get is bag of rice or roasted chicken. As to attacking me, He’ll have to deal with teeth, fingernails, elbows and knees . But I don’t want 10-foot wall to advertise we have goodies. We try to blend with rest of neighborhood. We only have wood privacy fence in back yard to keep doggie from running amock.
We did, however, shortly after purchasing house, install double pane windows that lock securely. My next door neighbor is sooo jealous. Her husband preferred to buy a boat so she suffers with rattily old windows. It was sad to watch her run around stuffing bits of paper in frames to quiet rattling when it got windy. When we bought house, I figured it was smart to replace the 1959 drafty windows to avoid paying to heat the outside during winter or cool the outside during summer. But the security features on good windows are awesome.
Trish
I’ve also heard about the “distract you at the front door while they break in the back” so watch your back and your front. Having motion alarms can deter that sort of thing. Also, keep in good standing with your neighbors and you’ll all be watching out for each other! The Golden Rule! If you want your back protected, do so for others. It’s a win/win!
I work in an auto claims department. I had a claim for a stolen vehicle just today where the owner admitted to leaving the ignition key in the ignition and just locking the door with his fob. Ridiculous!!
That is hysterical! I’m so glad you shared that little nugget. Perfect illustration of how a little common sense (or lack thereof) can go a long way….