White rocks in the yard

[CuriousMama]

Dh and i have found white rocks in our back yard. Our next door neighbours had one on their roof. They've recently had stuff stolen from their shed. Dh found an article saying white rocks/pebbles can be a sign to burglars that your house is empty during the day.

I'm nervous now. More that they'd hurt my dog. He is a good house dog but you hear awful stories.

I think these stories about houses being marked to burgle are a myth. Most burglars (unless you are in possession of vast wealth, fine art, jewels, the sorts of things that would attract professional burglars) are disorganised desperate drug users or alcohol dependent. They don’t work in gangs marking out options for other burglars. They need cash now, they go, select a target, in and out in minutes and stuff sold on to buy drugs / drink. I wouldn’t worry. If you’ve a dog these sorts of burglars are much less likely anyway.

A police officer told me this an urban myth. Running groups often use white chalk or rocks to mark out a run.

Urban myth or not, I found a stack of three small pebbles in my front garden to the side of the path. Largest at the bottom, then a medium one and a smaller one on top. Thought it odd so moved them. A couple of days later, a similar stack made from different stones reappeared in a different place. I moved them away again. I was living at home caring for my terminally ill parents at the time and yes, there were a spate of robberies. Coincidence? Maybe.

*spate of robberies in the area at that time, I meant to say.

These were bigger than an egg. I've binned them now.

There's lots of people on drugs in our area.

I'm going to keep an eye out but sometimes the house is empty apart from the dog.

I've never understood the 'marking your house as empty'

Surely if a burglar found your home empty, then they would burgle it there and then...not come back later

@oldraver yes, especially since just because a house is empty doesn't mean it will be the next day. You would have to watch for a good while to know the routine of a house. My house for example hasn't got one because dp works diffrent shifts, so just because he leaves the house at 10 today doesn't mean he's not in all day tomorrow.