How did the burglars enter?

Burglars recently entered my home while I was away overnight. When I returned, I saw two possible ways to enter and exit. In the kitchen, the sliding door to the patio was open enough for someone to easily pass through. In the fireplace room, a large casement window at the left end of a bay window was open, and the casement operator was bent, as shown here:

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Assuming that I forgot to lock the kitchen door before leaving home, someone could have easily entered and exited that way, without bothering to touch the casement window.

Assuming that the kitchen door was locked, I don't see any way he could have entered through the casement window. There is a screen on the inside held in place by four plastic clips. (One is visible in the above link.) The screen was laying on the floor, undamaged, and none of the clips was damaged. From the outside, there was no damage to the frames of the kitchen door or the casement window, as there would be if someone used a pry bar.

It takes a great deal of force to bend the casement operator; I couldn't straighten it using a bench vise. It is impossible to bend it upwards as shown in the link with the window closed because the bottom of the window frame would have blocked it.

The crank handle was lying nearby on the floor of the bay window. It's only held in place by friction; no need to loosen a screw.

Aside from the loss of the stuff stolen, my only expense was $45 for a replacement casement operator (brand: Truth). The casement hinges and locking bar were okay. The window frame wasn't bent out of shape.

Questions:

  1. Can anyone figure a way of getting in, either through the kitchen door or the casement window, without leaving signs outside?
  2. If they entered via the kitchen, why fiddle with the casement window?
  3. If they entered via the casement window, why take the time to bend the operator?

To see how my home looked, go to youtube and enter "house burglary

07726" to see the 5:32 video. The place looks messy, but nothing except the casement operator was damaged. There was no gratuitous vandalism.

R1

Reply to
Rebel1
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Rebel1 wrote in news:4f7e3375$0$6430$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

sliding patio doors can be lifted out of their tracks,unless you have a "burglar bar" that puts pressure on the patio door,or security pins in the track and door.

go to Wiki and search for "Bump key".

to pass stolen goods outside while staying out of sight.neighbors might get suspicious if they saw someone taking out your valuables one by one.

accident.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Answers:

  1. Yes, if the casement window was left slightly open you would not need a pry bar to open it further if you know what you are doing... If the sliding door was left unsecured all someone had to do was give it a tug...

  1. As someone else said, the side of your house where the casement window is located may have provided better cover or been closer to the getaway vehicle than the slider and may have been out of line of site from any neighbors who were home at the time...

  2. They didn't, that damage clearly occurred when the window was pushed or forced from the outside when it was in the fully open position... You wouldn't be able to do that to the operator when the window is closed as the frames of both the window pane and the window opening would protect that piece from bending that far...

It sounds like you left one or both of these openings unsecured when you left...

It also looks like you were robbed by junkies who needed a fix really badly and they were looking for money in all the typical places people hide it:

In various spots in the kitchen, under couch cushions, under the mattress and in bedroom drawers/closets...

If your house had an alarm system installed in it, your forgetfulness of leaving a door or window unlocked would have only afforded the burglar

3 to 5 minutes of time inside unless you have really terrible police response times in your area...

You were robbed by junkies because a pro would not have left your house in such a mess and would have only taken a small backpack's worth of the most valuable stuff -- i.e. bank statements, credit card statements, extra credit cards you don't carry with you, valuable jewelry/silver, spare car keys so they can return and steal your vehicle at a later date, spare house keys so they can return and burglarize your home again easier the next time, etc... Pro burglars take so little and leave hardly a trace behind, your burglar was disorganized and frenzied and left a huge mess...

You should at once do the following:

If you had any vehicle or house keys which are now missing have the door locks and vehicle(s) re-keyed...

If you had any account statements for a bank or credit card account go missing have the accounts frozen/closed and the account numbers changed...

Consider installing a home security alarm system and some motion detector activated lighting around the perimeter of your home...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

Yea, I watched your video.

Interesting how they searched that one couch (threw the cushions on the floor). No doubt they were looking for guns.

And they spent the most time in the bedroom (master bedroom). That is typical.

I'd check to see if they got any keys (car keys, house keys, etc).

Most likely they/he went right for the bedroom first. Note how the matress was pushed away from the foundation - again looking for valuables - or a gun.

I was surprised they spent some time in the kitchen - going through the pantry closet. I wonder what they thought they'd find in there... ?

Can you tell if anything in the fridge was moved around?

It looks like they spent a lot of time opening small boxes - especially in rooms outside the bedroom. Did some of those contain photographic slides?

The window mechanism got bent because the window was pushed open from the inside without cranking it open. He was in a hurry - maybe he heard a noise like you were coming home and he thought he had to make a quick exit.

I'd like to know how thoroughly he searched any bathrooms (looking for perscription drugs). That would tell you how much time he had - or if he made a hasty exit out the window.

Reply to
Home Guy

or...

My Peachtree door was manufactured in a manner that prevents it from being lifted out of the track.

The door is wood on the interior and they use a piece of weather-stripped trim along the top of the frame to hold the door in place.

To remove the sliding panel you have to remove the 8 screws that hold the trim in place. Once the trim is removed, the top of the panel can be tilted into the room and then lifted out of the bottom track.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Rebel1 wrote in news:4f7e3375$0$6430$ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

He was in there a while.....and made a video!!!

Reply to
ktos
.

I can't tell from the picture, would you have to force the window open or force it closed to cause the bar to bend up like that?

Mark

Reply to
Mark

If you had the window unlatched and opened a crack, that could be forced open with damaging the frame. Would that do the bend? I don't know, but you can figure that out. No way it could be forced without frame damage if it was latched. Can't tell the distance to the ground, or if the burglar needed a boost up. More likely you went away for the night with the window cracked open than leaving doors unlocked - seems to me. Doesn't make much difference how they got in if they did it so easily. What would concern me is how the burglar knew you were away. Might seem paranoid, but that's what I would be thinking about.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

I've been told by cops that a majority of these types of burglars are committed by "neighbors" or friends of neighbors. They have an excuse to be loitering around and they can tell when you're not home pretty easily. When we had a rash of car break-ins, it was the junkie son of a elderly couple living across the street that had come home to live with them. And burglarize the neighbors for spending money.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Good idea. Have two very loud bells or sirens installed inside and outside of the house. Junkies freak right out from the noise and leave (so my cop friends say) and even pro burglars get unnerved by an unholy loud racket. Some people even mount a flashing light on the house so it's readily apparent where the noise is coming from. Unfortunately burglars can do a lot of damage and take a lot of stuff in the time in takes for the cops to arrive. That means trying to "evict" them as soon as possible. My alarm flashes all of the inside lights that are on X-10, making the place even more uninviting.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Get a alarm system installed.

Reply to
Ron

Did they also break your fridge?

Reply to
Ron

There's a third possibility: The do-bad(s) entered through an unlocked front door and locked the door before they left through the kitchen door. The broken casement window may be an unsuccessful attempt to open it.

Another possibility is that he (she, they, it) is still in your house.

Reply to
HeyBub

There are very few "professional" burglars. Most are junkies doing a "smash and grab".

I work in the alarm business, and can pretty much guarantee I'd be able to keep most systems installed in residences from sounding the siren or sending a signal trying to gain access. I would think a professional burglar of high-caliber can do the same.

Without good physical security, an alarm system alone just does not cut it for total security. Hardened openings, thick thorny shrubs around accessible windows, lighting, CCTV, knowing your neighbors, dogs (great for early warning if you get the right one), a defensive weapon available, all contribute to the overall picture.

Reply to
G. Morgan

The casement window looks like they tried to force it closed from the outside.

Reply to
G. Morgan

The sliding door doesn't have a cylinder lock. You just rotate a lever to open/lock it. The casement locks by lowering a lever. Again, no cylinder lock.

They stole a pillowcase, probably to hold all the small coins they stole. The biggest single things were a Konica 35mm camera and a zoom telephoto lens for it. They ignored a laptop in plain view and easy to snatch. They definitely focused on small things (with high value).

That definitely could have happened as they entered, if the operator caught on the top of a shoe. They probably would have fell face down on the carpeted floor, but there was no signs of blood, like from a nose.

Reply to
Rebel1
.

That would have taken time, an as I said the door (by Anderson) was on its tracks (and also operated normally).

Reply to
Rebel1

Excellent ideas. I'm torn between having a silent alarm that notifies the police so they can catch the burglars vs. a noisy one to scare them away and let them strike elsewhere. I'll start a new thread addressing the pros and cons of each approach.

Reply to
Rebel1

Excellent possibility. When my gun permit comes through in three months, they might get lucky and find a gun if I'm not home. If I am home, well it will be bad news for them.

None taken.

Or for money that people don't bother putting in a bank account because of low interest rates.

I had a large amount of cash in one drawer and a check made to me for $1300. Both were taken.

Nothing.

There was one box of 35mm slides on the floor.

Odd thing is that the crank handle that operates the casement window was off the opening mechanism. It was only held in place by friction, not a set screw, but it took a fair amount of force to remove it. It was lying on the floor of the bay window.

Here's what the mechanism looks like:

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(I've partially straightened the bend parts using a vise.)

No pill bottles in either bathroom. A few bottles for cheap antibiotics in the hall closet. Definitely no pain killers.

Reply to
Rebel1

LOL...

Laptops and cell phones and other internet connected/connectable devices are more trouble than they are worth to a burglar, unless the burglar in question knows which parts/software need to be replaced before they can be safely used again without basically sending up a flare saying "here i am, come arrest me"...

The coins, if rare, will be difficult to fence in your local area if you were able to give the police a detailed list of what was stolen...

Also, it sounds a lot like you can not remember if you actually locked the sliding door or window in question, so it will not be possible to positively identify how the burglars entered until they are caught and offer that information up during their interrogation...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

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