What items are most likely stolen in a burglary?

[Bluetriangle9]

After my neighbours house got burgled, I want to think about what might be most desirable to steal from my house, just so I can be aware. Obvs laptop, phone & purse but I usually have those with me. I have no tv, hifi or other 'desirable' electronic gadgets. Jewellery I'll have to do something about but that's very small & easier to hide. What else do burglars steal? Passport. Other than that, there isn't anything else of value & I drive a clapped out banger.

The clapped out banger isn’t safe. MIl was broken into this week...for her clapped out banger. It was a scruffy fifteen year old Yaris. They wrote it off.

I think they will take whatever is to hand that can be taken quickly and then leave in your car however old it is.

DDs house mates were broken into when they all went out. They took all the laptops, cash but left cards and purses just emptied them, jewellery and all the car keys. They escaped in the first car that lit up when they pressed the remote controls.

The police said he average burglar spends a maximum of five minutes in a house.

Things that can be taken quickly, tech items left out like a laptop for example, jewellery, money they find etc.

As pp mentioned, most burglars don't stay in a house long.

Portable items. Laptops, jewellery, phones, keys to take your car as a getaway vehicle, sunglasses, cash.

They tend not to be that interested in passports, as most burglars are druggies looking for a quick sale for their next fix. Not many have the contacts to sell passports.

Ex-burglary unit Detective👮‍♀️

Been burgled twice in last week. Hide your jewellery well, they methodically went through every drawer, box and bag in my house. Even DS’s board game boxes.

Also targeted garden power tools and lawn mower.

We’ve had an alarm fitted and CCTV in the hopes of stopping the bastards.

They go through things like tea caddies too.
Shiny things will go.

IME jewellery. They ransacked my undies drawers too. Maybe they were looking for more jewellery. Maybe they just fancied checking out my undies.

@Tweefutom I'm sorry to hear that. I assume they had time to go through the house like that? It's an unusual MO - depending on how long they had to do that, it could have been two working together.

Yes to cases and handbags. My trumpet was stolen in one of the burglaries at my parents house when I was a child. We found it in its case, discarded over a nearby wall a few days later. They obviously didn't realise it had value, just saw the locked case and on opening it, weren't impressed m

tweefutom that happened to me too - we think the burglars came back for the things they missed the first time. Horrible

Since then it's been mainly laptops and games consoles. Bikes.

Had the car boot broken into a few times too.

When we were burgled, the burglars targeted the master bedroom, according to police they were looking for gold jewellery.

Was quite fascinating they went thro my wardrobe looking for jewellery, clearly that’s where they expect to find it! They also went through my dressing table and carefully took out the box I hadn’t thrown out for my phone (phone wasn’t in it.

They nicked DP’s PS4, they only found it as he hadn’t thrown out the PS4 box so they searched for (& found) it.

That was the only thing they got.

Police said they were probably also looking for Xmas gifts as we were burgled close to Xmas. Officer attending said he’d visited a house burgled day before Xmas and they’d unwrapped and stolen only the gifts they wanted!

Also they broke in our back garden door and broke the double glazed pane, using a garden broom they found, they repeatedly bashed the pane using the handle till it broke. They clearly expected the keys to be in the back door (they weren’t). They got out by forcing one of the windows open which wasn’t locked.

So ensure you lock all doors and windows. Don’t leave keys in any locks. And clear any garden implements away in they garden as they use those to help them break in.

Also if you have gold in your house, don’t hide it in the wardrobe in the master bedroom. That’s the first place they look.

Ensure, boxes/branded containers for expensive equipment is disposed otherwise it advertises what’s available to steal.

Have to add, they got nothing else as I had nothing else.

Never been happier to have not a thing of value to my name till that point.

Poor DP PS4 has been a birthday present from his dad to him that year.

Been burgled twice. Cars taken, and cleared us out downstairs of anything that could be lifted and sold for quick cash.

Horrible experience waking up to people in your home.

The only word of warning I have on keys for windows is making sure you have access to them in the event of a fire. To me, it's more important you get out safely in an emergency.

Yes, laptops, jewellery. 4 houses in our street (of 40) were broken into the same afternoon a week before Christmas. All houses with youngish children. They took the Christmas presents all wrapped up too that were in the wardrobe. The playstation would have been sold but they might have been disappointed with the pants and socks.

Be extra vigilant in the run up to Christmas.

We got broken into a few years ago. We don't have high value items so I think when they saw the TV was years old, no modern sound system etc (I did have a macbook hidden under the sofa, which they didn't see) they just ransacked the place for anything. Only thing that was expensive was the xbox but it was a 360 not the latest.

So they just ransacked the place. But they must not have been experienced as some things they took was just like.. what? And then they left old game consoles with v rare games which would cost hundreds now. An expensive necklace my parents bought me for my 21st birthday was left too.

They did take £1 tesco basic fabric softener, a bag of sweets, a pair of shoes, matted hair extensions from a halloween costume and a bottle of half used lube. We joked his lady was in for a wiiiiild night.

One thing we we're really sad about was DP's childhood money boxes and his grandads sheepskin coat. I feel so awful about those, I'd do anything to get them back for him.

Jewellery, in my case they took nothing else in and out in under 15mins.

Note that statistically if you have been burgled, sadly you are at higher risk of it happening again in the coming weeks. I guess this is because 'they' know that you will have replaced the laptops, telly or whatever with shiny new ones within a few days, so if they return they get those.

Also, I think if your neighbour has been burgled, again, you are at higher risk as there tend to be clusters.

Does anyone know how much of a deterrent dogs actually are? Mine are very noisy and reactive to noise outside the house so I live in hope that their barking would frighten burglars off. Of course there's the flip side that they might actually want to steal the dogs, that thought terrifies me.

I got burgled last year, four days before my holiday, they took my US Dollars, some jewellery, rarely worn, but sentimental value, my two watches, again sentimental only, my DSLR camera, one of my laptops, my flatmates two (very old) laptops, his broken watch, some cufflinks. They wanted to take the X-Box, but must have been disturbed by some noise.
We could never prove who it was, but as only four parties had keys to the property, we were very certain it was the cleaner.

Luckily they didn't take my passport, otherwise my holiday would've been toast.
They also didn't take my favourite jewellery pieces and my old laptop, as these were hidden under my (usual) mess on my chest of drawers and magazines in the bedside table respectively.
Also, I had just a few weeks before then, moved a going-away-present from my former company of some value.

My parents got burgled last year and they walked past at least one laptop and two iPads, past the big telly etc - went straight upstairs and through the bedroom drawers for jewellery - that was all they were interested in