Every autumn the same pattern repeats. The clocks go back, it gets dark before most people are home from work, and break-ins rise. A house with no lights on at six in the evening tells a burglar everything: nobody is in, and nobody will be for a while.
You can't stop the sun from setting earlier. You can make sure that anyone who gets in leaves with nothing worth having.
Why autumn suits burglars
- Darkness is cover. At half past five in November a burglar has the same cover as at midnight in June, with far more empty homes to choose from.
- Empty homes are easy to spot. Unlit windows and no car in the driveway give the game away.
- Homes hold more than usual. In the run-up to the holidays there is more cash in the house, new gifts, and jewelry out for parties.
What happens once they are inside
Most break-ins are fast. The intruder heads for the main bedroom (nightstands, dresser drawers, under the mattress), then the home office, then anything that looks like a safe or a box. We cover the full list in Where NOT to Hide Your Valuables.
What they don't do is open the tomato jar in the pantry, the air freshener in the bathroom or the extinguisher by the door. There isn't time, and nothing about those objects suggests there is anything inside.
An autumn plan in four rooms
The kitchen
The pantry is full of containers nobody looks at twice. A tomato jar, porridge jar or olive jar safe sits among the real ones and disappears. See the kitchen range.
The bathroom
Burglars rarely linger in a bathroom. An air freshener safe on the windowsill or a toilet brush safe by the toilet is about as uninteresting as an object gets. See the bathroom range.
The hallway
A fire extinguisher safe by the front door looks like what a careful household keeps there. It is a hidden safe, not a working extinguisher, so keep a real one nearby too. For bulkier items there are 6 kg and 9 kg versions.
The garage or utility room
Cleaning shelves and toolboxes are the least searched corners of any home. A multipurpose oil can among real bottles, or a screwdriver safe in the toolbox, is invisible to someone hunting for jewelry boxes. See the toolbox range.
Three habits for the dark months
- Put a lamp on a timer. A light that switches on at dusk breaks the empty-house pattern.
- Split your valuables. Cash in the kitchen, jewelry in the bathroom, spare keys in the hallway. One find never means losing everything.
- Leave a decoy. A small jewelry box on the dresser with a few inexpensive pieces gives a burglar something to take and a reason to leave.
Where to start
- A kitchen safe for cash: a tomato jar or porridge jar.
- A bathroom safe for jewelry: an air freshener.
- A hallway safe for spare keys and documents: the fire extinguisher.
Set it up once before the clocks change and it works all winter, with nothing to switch on and nothing to remember.