Thieves typically avoid areas that are difficult to access, time-consuming, or unlikely to contain high-value, easily portable items. Key, overlooked spots include children's rooms, the attic/loft, laundry rooms, pantry, and, in some cases, the freezer or behind framed art. Common, low-value spots like a child's toy chest or a pantry are less likely to be ransacked.
Here are 6 clever places to hide your valuables in your home:
Criminals also use hidden locations in remote or natural environments such as forests, fields or vacant lots.
Why Invest in Burglar Deterrents?
18 Ways to Theft-Proof Your Home Inside and Out
The bedroom is often searched first. Living rooms and studies are also often ransacked first. Most thieves are familiar with the usual hiding places for money: In DVD cases.
Just make sure the items you're hiding are in a waterproof container, too. inside a false wall outlet. Make sure it's not a live receptacle or in the way of any electrical wiring. within hollowed-out/removable building components, such as wainscoting, floor panels, door jambs, window sills, and cabinet doors.
The Worst Place to Stash Your Valuables
5 Secrets burglars don't want you to know
You can tell if your house is being targeted by burglars by looking out for suspicious signs such as unfamiliar vehicles parked nearby for extended periods, strangers lingering or walking by frequently, flyers or stickers left on your door or mailbox, signs of tampering with locks or windows, and unexpected visits from ...
According to Safe Home, open doors and windows were the most common entry points for burglars, followed closely by forcing open doors or windows*. Dog doors can also be a way for burglars to make their way into your home if the door is large enough.
Burglars also don't want to spend too long in your house, so they'll likely take off with whatever is handy and profitable. Jewellery, consumer electronics like phones, tablets and laptops as well as portable hardware tools and equipment all rank highly as stolen goods claimed under insurance[1].
0
1. Near windows and doors. Doors and windows are the most common entry points for burglars, so near these entry points is often the first place they look for any valuables. Burglars also know many homeowners hide their house key near the front door, making it easier for them to break in within minutes or even seconds.
During burglaries, intruders commonly look for portable items with a high resale value, things they can shove into a car and drive away within 10 minutes or less. Household goods, including pots and pans, knives, and kitchen appliances.
2. During the summer (between June and August) Burglars are caught trying to break in far more often in summer than winter. Burglaries are lowest at the height of winter, and highest during the hottest summer months.
Legal Ways to Catch a Thief:
It is legal to use various surveillance technologies such as GPS tracking, security cameras, bait technology, or security systems to catch a thief. If you have used such technology, let the authorities look into the evidence to help you find your valuables.
Burglars avoid houses that appear occupied, well-protected, and difficult to access, especially those with visible security systems, motion lights, barking dogs, and signs of constant activity, while they target isolated homes with overgrown landscaping, dark corners, and easy entry points like unlocked doors or hidden windows.
High privacy hedges, bushes, and walls around the property. Outdated window and door frames, as well as sliding glass doors or cheap wooden doors. Packages or mail stacking up on a porch or even recycling left out before collection could indicate you have recently gone out of town.
Either way, houses with entry points weakened by disrepair, residents who leave doors or windows unlocked routinely, or homes with weakened security (like broken alarms) are more likely to be successfully burgled.