The PI's Diary

for Breaking into Someone's House

People often wonder why I picked on their house. To answer that, I need to give you some insight into my mind. To my mind, it’s nothing personal. I need to earn my money to buy drugs & beer and this is clearly the easiest way of doing that. Your things are probably insured, you can probably replace them before too long and I can try again when you do.

What to look for when choosing a house to break into

When I go out robbing, I normally stay within a few miles of home. I know my area intimately. I usually look for houses that are easy to get into and that are empty. The best time to do that is during the day. I really don’t want to meet anyone while I’m stealing and most people are out during the day, usually at work.

I am looking for several things that will immediately stand out to my eyes.
• Open windows (No need to break in)
• Garden gates left open (easy to get to the back of the house)
• High fences (no one can see me doing my thing)
• Ladders and other tools left available for me to use (allows me to access upstairs windows and tools to force my way in)
• Lots of mail, milk or newspapers left inside the door (means there’s no one home)
• Lights off during the evening
• I will always check to see if spare house keys are left near the front door or back doors. People leave them there in case they get locked out.
• I also look through the letterbox coz people often leave their keys on a string inside or very near the door. Their car keys are left there too.
• I like looking into people’s windows coz I want to know if they have anything worth stealing.

What to watch out for...

Some houses I avoid like the plague;
• Any house that has a burglar alarm system
• Any house that has CCTV
• Any house that has security lights
• Large Dogs
• Streets that have a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme
• Houses that clearly have people in it.
• Houses that have strong locks

What happens once I’ve picked out my target?

FRONT DOOR: I normally approach the front door and ring the bell. I want to be absolutely sure that there’s no one home. While I’m there I will search for the spare house keys. I will check the strength of the lock. Most doors have a Yale latch lock. These are easy to get through. If there is a mortise lock then that presents a bigger problem.

BACK DOOR: The front door though is not where I normally break in through. I prefer the back door as there’s less chance of being seen or heard. The high fences or hedges keep the neighbours from seeing what’s going on. I check the back area for spare keys and look for any open windows. I will test the doors and windows to see how strong they are. I am looking at the locks in particular. I know that most people put good locks on the front door but ignore the back door.

PATIO DOORS: I love patio doors. Patio doors are secured by latches not locks. They are vulnerable to being forced open from the outside because of these inherently defective latch mechanisms. Older Patio doors can be lifted up and off their track, thereby defeating the latch mechanism.

WINDOWS: People leave windows open a lot more than doors. Most windows don’t have locks. They tend to have latches and are easy to defeat.

GARAGE: Again garages normally have either no locks or very easy locks to defeat. Garages normally have expensive tools that I can sell easily or tools that I can use to force my way into the main house.

What to steal

So once I’m in, what do I look for? Well anything I can sell for cash. Any electronics, cash and jewellery will do. Car keys will give me access to an expensive car too.
• Cash
• Credit Cards
• DVD players
• TV sets
• Hi-Fi systems
• Microwave ovens
• Mobile phones
• iPods
• Xbox, Wii, PS3, DS. PSP
• Laptops
• Personal computers

Well you get the picture, anything I can carry away easily and sell easily. For a few minutes work, I can earn a couple of hundred quid, no problems.