Robbed--What Now?

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Sorry for the loss of the guns and jewelry and other items. Sounds like someone that knew you, your home, and your vacation plans.

I've been the victim of minor theft and know the feeling of violation. It's terrible.

There are learning points here for everyone! First, this type of theft DOES HAPPEN.

There are good points here. I'll comment on a few.

1. Get a dog if you love it and will take care of it properly. Not just a convenient pet. They are a lot of work. In this case it would have been immaterial because you were gone. Thieves will likely just kill them anyway, but it may deter them and if you are home they will alert you to a breakin.

2. Bolting down the safe is a good idea, but if it's just to wooden floors it only takes a $50 electric reciprocating saw to cut though the floor in only a couple of minutes.

3. Spreading out the guns and hiding them makes the most sense. But I also hate living in a prison by having everything locked up and hidden. I would love to display my things, but we live in a different world.

4. Get the insurance. I'm going to tonight because of reading this!
 
Have a dog in the home.
Get an alarm system installed.
Leave Lights on inside and outside the house.
Leave a car in the driveway.
Have a friend or family member stop by the house to pick up your mail and do a quick inspection of doors and windows each day you are gone. This could be a neighbor you trust.
Leave a radio on inside the house or a TV to create the impression that someone is home.
Get a heavy duty safe and bolt it down.
Install a security camera someplace obvious or install a fake security camera someplace obvious.
If you have guns or jewelery that cannot be replaced because they hold sentimental value consider taking those items to another secure location (Brother, Sister, Father, Uncle, can look after them while you are gone).
Get 2 safes - splitting your stuff into two safes, two locations etc. makes it 2x as difficult and 2x as long to steal. Imagine trying to open 2 safes or unbolt 2 safes while a siren is going off and the police are responding and your dog is going crazy. Maybe this saves you 50% of what you are trying to protect. Or you could leave one safe completely empty and not bolted down. you may get lucky and they take the wrong safe because it's 'easier' and 'quicker' to move.
Have a decoy. Leave the guns that you care much less about less secure. Maybe they will get these 3 or 4 less secure guns and some fake jewelery and think 'we got it all'.
Hide something you care about under a pile of dirty underwear. :)
Ask the police their opinion on what you can do to better secure your home. They may have some ideas you haven't thought of yet.
Good luck
 
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Jorg said:
Apparently you fail to understand how insurance works. Premiums are based on risks. The insurance company is much more likely to have to pay burglarly claims in Indianapolis vs. burglaryclaims claims in El Paso.


Then don't buy it. You're almost always betting against yourself.
Click to expand...
I think you get that backwards, Indy is alot safer than El Paso!
 
"The safe was NOT bolted down. I wish I had done that."

I don't know how many times it's been said on this forum, and said in general but ALWAYS bolt your safe down NO MATTER WHAT IT WEIGHS. ANYONE who owns a safe at this point who has not, well...

Anyway, good security is always layered and starts with good doors and locks installed by a pro, an alarm system connected to the local PD, and a good safe that is well secured and if possible, hidden. Add dogs where/if possible.

That will either prevent most thefts, or at the very least, provide little time for them to do anything but a quick "snatch and grab" as they call it.

Good luck.
 
I know your pain. I lost about 15 guns about three years ago and lost a lot of stuff that's no longer in production. The cops might get some of it back. They found my AR which made me very happy. The police were disappointed when they found me because they wanted to use the AR for their SWAT team!
 
How about some kind of tracking system in the safe with early warning notification.(aside from hiding and bolting it)
I know there are LoJacks for Computers.
 
Video surveillance system

every one seems to agree on having an alarm system.., but no one advocated a video system to go along with the alarm, i have seen these video systems at gun shows, check out this possibility, you will not need it 24/7, just when you and all members of your family are away from home.
 
That sucks man. Sorry it happened.

Even though my collection DOES NOT include some of the best guns in the world, I brought them to a neighbor while I went away on vacation.

It was a pain in the ass, both delivering and picking them up but they were all there when I returned.
 
I would think some sort of tracking device would be best.

Again, though, a professional like that probably takes it to an abandoned warehouse or a remote storage shed, drills it with a carbide tipped bit and vanishes with the loot. Maybe various tracking devices in bags of ammo, etc?
 
I still see the dog is getting hyped, anybody ever watch "it takes a thief" 9 times out of 10 the barking dog just went up to the guy with its tale wagging while the ransacked the place, he usually (even if they were aggressive) would just give them treats, and go on,

I would not place all my chips on a dog,

Bolt down a safe and get a alarm system that would wake the dead,(most also send a alert to the company that is what I am thinking).
 
anybody ever watch "it takes a thief" 9 times out of 10 the barking dog just went up to the guy with its tale wagging while the ransacked the place
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Somehow I have the feeling, that most burglars would not try it with him:
Max%204web.jpg

:evil:
 
Dogs can be eliminated if not trained well, alarms are great IF they have cell phone backup, video cameras are great, post a sign in English and Spanish saying all recording is off site. I have an odd schedule, use the garage to load and unload any expenisve items, ahnd the only expenisve item box that went with the trash was the office chair...dunno if they want to steal that!
 
a) install a room with the security of a commerical bank that goes the whole 9 yards.

b)install a safe room that is completely hidden, with regular 'safes' bolted to the ground in the corners of the room.

there are lots of other things you can do which have already been mentioned, for the cameras I would go for IR and a hard wired alarm system with motion detectors if you don't leave dogs behind

My favourite would be bullet resistant glass on the ground floor of a house....not for bullets but to prevent people using a hammer/crow bar from breaking the glass in.

here they all break into houses like that, smash the glass and in they go, especially on patio doors leading out onto a garden terrace behind the house.

also spend just as much money on garage and back door entrances, front door gets the least amount of attention as it is normally more solid.

there is an awful lot of things you can do to harden a house from thieves.

I'd say more than likely they will come back, maybe in 3 months or a year but they will be back if your gear is as good as I think it is.
 
sorry for your loss, it must be horrible to come home to that after holidays.
 
Sorry for your loss.

But, I am even more sorry that it was clearly someone you trust.

Learn from the experience.
 
ddr_sm70.gif


Shooting-mine a used on the east-german border.



...and maybe keep a few "broken" guns in the safe, that will explode
in the hands of the thief, when he fires them.

You will know, he won´t.


Sad/Condolences
 
"What the heck am I supposed to do now?"

(1) take all the advice here and put it into action.

(2) realize this was 99% likely an inside job. Very unlikely they randomly picked your house, especially considering how efficient they sounded. Cleaning lady tipped off BF, someone you had in the house to fix something and took a look around, friends of your kids, neighbor, etc, etc.
 
Likely an inside job.

I just put up a ADT security sign in my yard, don't have the service. ADT guy said 90% of the effectiveness of the system is the little sign in the front yard, they would rather just move to the next house that doesn't have one. So I just bought the sign.
 
...and maybe keep a few "broken" guns in the safe, that will explode
in the hands of the thief, when he fires them.
Click to expand...

A great idea until the thief pawns them to shop, and Joe Sixpack buys one for Joe Jr. to learn to shoot on...
 
How about some kind of tracking system in the safe with early warning notification.(aside from hiding and bolting it
Click to expand...

They make them. I sell $100,000 safes that have them installed at the factory. Only problem is most people who buy 500 pound gun safes wouldn't want to spend the money on something like this.
 
Here are some ideas, but alot of what you should implement is often restrained by your budget:

1. get a decoy safe and put bricks in it.

2. get a dog that barks and that you love

3. get an alarm security system(preferably silent)

4. get security cameras for interior and exterior of your house some obvious,
some not

5. spread your guns out, don't have all of them in one location

6. hide the location of your guns and fortify that location, and/or get a very
strong and heavy safe, if you use a safe put it in a location where it is
difficult to move like at the bottom of some steep stairs.
 
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