Mythbusters — If a burglar really wants to get in, then they will.

Whenever I go out to people, and talk about their home security, very often people have this kind of defeatest attitude, that if a burglar really wants to get into their house, then they’ll get in, there’s nothing you can do to stop them.

And I kind of agree with that but only up to a certain point, because if a burglar has got a huge tool kit and they’ve got hours and hours,
then you’re probably right, they’ll get in.

But thing about it is that burglars don’t have a huge toolkit, they don’t have a lot of time, they want to be in and out as quickly as possible,
and they want to carry as few tools as possible. They’re looking for the easy job.

Now the exception to that, to a certain extent is if you’ve got the typical “something worth stealing” for instance if you’ve got a priceless original Rembrandt or a Fabergé egg or a diamond tiara, something like that that is genuinely worth stealing, maybe then yes, maybe burglars will come along with a huge amount of tools and they’ll make sure they’ve got lots of time but in a more urban setting, where they’ve got a whole load of different houses to choose from, no one’s got those “things worth stealing”

The things that those people are looking for, as we’ve said before, are small tech items, gold and jewellery, they’re looking for cash, small things that they can walk down the road with, and not attract attention.

So why would a burglar take hours and hours and make lots of noise to get into a house when they could maybe try a different house further down the road, where it’s going to be a lot quicker and a lot more quiet to get in?

And the answer to that is, well, they wouldn’t do.

So if you take sensible security precautions, you put proper locks on your doors, you have an alarm system and CCTV then that will stop people getting into your house because they won’t even bother to try, they’ll look for the easy target.