Desperate times

In desperate time, desperate people do desperate things. In early 2009, at the start of the credit crunch, burglaries increased by 4%.

I think it’s fair to say that these are currently desperate times, so I confidently predict that burglary rates will increase.

There were a couple of comments on one of our Facebook sponsored posts recently, with someone saying that they were always at home, and another person added that we all are. The implication is that no-one needs to worry about being burgled at the moment, because nobody burgles a house where people are in.

Except…..

Figures released in late 2018 showed that 58% of burglaries happen when people were actually at home. They also said that in 25% of burglaries, the residents actually saw the burglar in their home. How scary is that?

Now, as Mark Twain was wont to say, there are three types of lie:- lies, damned lies, and statistics – making the point that statistics can be made to say anything. So, the caveat to those statistics above is that they were released at the end of 2018. The summer of 2018, in Europe at least, was hot. Very hot. And because it was hot, people left their back doors open, to try to allow a cooling breeze to waft through their homes. And this had the unwanted side effect of allowing burglars in unopposed.

From our own unscientific anecdotal evidence, we estimate that the true figure of burglaries at occupied houses is somewhere around 30%. Give or take a bit, that’s one burglary in three.

So, you see, the complacency displayed by our Facebook correspondents is dangerously flawed.

And they would likely disagree, saying that they would hear a burglar trying to break-in.

Except…..

Imagine you’re in your lounge, watching the latest Netflix* blockbuster (*other broadcasting and streaming services are available), and someone pops off to the loo. You’re engrossed in the telly. Ask yourself honestly – are you aware of that person moving around the house until they walk back in the room? Are you even aware of that person flushing the toilet? So, would you actually be aware of a burglar unless they walked into your lounge?

But, don’t be stupid, they would make too much noise breaking in, you’d hear them.

Except…..

Burglars try not to make much noise, for obvious reasons. Cylinder snapping, for example, makes a similar amount of noise as someone using a key. And with you in the lounge with the telly on, engrossed in the programme, trust me, you are unlikely to hear it.

Complacency, “it’ll never happen to me,” it won’t happen when we’re at home” – I really hope you don’t live to regret it.