That being said, perhaps you should consider locking up your laptops and other gear when you’re out. Our daughter, away at university, kept her laptop chained to the dorm heating system (hot water). It worked.

It’s a sad commentary on our society, but we all have to take more precautions.

The first is because your place was an opportunity when he decided he needed some money, likely for drugs.

The second is because he knows that there are zero, nada, zilch consequences if he gets caught. Couple of hours in police cells, a taxpayer supplied lawyer gets him out so he can commit more B&E’s while he waits to go to court to have some useless bleeding. Heart judge will give him a suspended sentence.

My numbers where just a guess, thanks for more accurate statistics.

Middle of the day because most people are at work and nobody is home.

A good lock and a steel door should stop the ” amateurs ” if the rest of the house is hardened by bars or hard to access: Professional ” Cat burglars ” seen in fiction are the ones with lock picking skills and relatively rare in real life, but they can get through even the best security, but will only bother with big fat targets worth the trouble and expertise i.e. the rich. ( Oh, just opinion again, I might be wrong about some of the details ).

Something in the order of about 50% of all break-ins are through the front door…and in the middle of the day.

Think I heard an interview on radio with that same prof. I recall him saying that about 50% of BCs crime is committed by roughly 2000 offenders well known to the police. Said some of these perps have as many as 100 charges/convictions already, and they’re still on the streets.

Wish the hug-a-thug idiots on the left, and especially the usually suspects in the MSM, would start listening to people like him for a bloody change!!!

At night, when I’m home, I have a steel safety bar to back up the lock so that if the lock is picked the door will not even open a crack. ( Home invasions are more serious and dangerous than burglaries when you are away ).

Another plus is that if someone does have the skills to pic the lock they won’t know or care to relock the door when they leave, so the first thing I do when I get home is try to open the door before unlocking it: This at least gives me reassurance that at least the front door entry hasn’t been accessed.

Now, if the burglar as come and gone this makes little difference, but if the door is no longer locked I will be on my guard and not be completely surprised if the intruder is still in the house, which is the most dangerous thing: If there are any signs of a break in before you enter have the police clear the house before going in.

I think that 90% of burglaries are though the front or back door or an easy to get at window: If there are bars on all the low windows and the security of the doors are improved it increases the odds that a burglar will look for an easier target.

This kind of thing is really ” unsettling ” and can result in a lot of stress and a PTS level of increased vigilance and difficult to restore ” serenity & peace of mind “.