How many movies or TV programs have you seen depicting a burglar leaving a huge mess behind? Such scenes are not completely made up. They are actually rooted in reality. Oftentimes, destruction, damage, and vandalism go hand-in-hand with burglary. But why?
Vivint Smart Home explains that forced entry and frantic searches for valuables are the main culprits. But there are other reasons vandalism and property destruction might occur. More importantly, some of those reasons are enough to cause emotional harm to victims. It is bad enough that burglars have violated their homes. Seeing the destruction left behind can be rather unnerving.
Forced Entry Is Destructive
Getting back to what Vivint Smart Home says, it stands to reason that property destruction is a normal part of burglary. Let’s face it, some burglars have the luxury of walking through unlocked doors. But most need to force their way into targeted homes. Forced entry causes destruction.
Kicking in a door can damage both the door and sash. If a kick is hard enough, an entire door frame might have to be replaced. Burglars entering through windows cause a different kind of destruction. Whether it is a single pane or a large patio door, broken glass leaves behind a mess that needs to be cleaned up.
Looking for Valuables
The other big issue with burglary is searching for valuables. Did you know that home burglars generally head to the master bedroom first? They do, because they know the master bedroom is where they are most likely to find cash, jewelry, and other items that are easy to carry away and sell on the street.
In terms of vandalism and property damage, burglars do not have the luxury of time. They cannot be careful and deliberate when they know they only have a few minutes to get what they want and get out. So they rush. They pull things out of drawers and dump out jewelry boxes. They pull down pictures looking for wall safes.
With that in mind, imagine a burglar who looks in all the right places but finds nothing. Now he’s frustrated. As he continues to look and his frustration mounts, he becomes more destructive. Some of the damage he leaves in his wake could be the result of anger. Doing more damage is a means of retribution.
Other Reasons for Damage and Destruction
While forced entry and the rushed process of searching for valuables accounts for most of the damage and destruction, there are other reasons burglars do what they do. For starters, consider accidental damage. It happens.
A burglar rushing through a home in hopes of grabbing as much as possible might accidentally knock over a lamp or a vase. In an effort to search a bookshelf for valuables, he might inadvertently knock the shelf over. Not all damage is intentional. Some of it occurs accidentally.
There are still more possibilities to consider:
1. Destruction of Evidence
Every criminal leaves behind evidence of his crimes. More sophisticated criminals know enough to eliminate as much evidence as possible. In a burglary scenario, this could mean significant destruction to cover up anything that might help police investigators. An extreme example of such destruction would be arson.
Granted, destroying evidence is not the norm when it comes to burglary. Most burglars don’t think that far ahead. However, highly sophisticated burglary rings that tend to target high net worth individuals could very easily damage property to destroy evidence.
2. Victim Intimidation
Some burglaries are not motivated by theft. They are motivated by intimidation. You might have two parties with an ongoing feud. One party decides to intimidate the other by burglarizing his home. While he is at it, he’s going to do as much damage as possible.
Such a crime might be a warning of worse things ahead. Today it’s burglary; tomorrow it’s home invasion. But what about burglars who target unknown suspects? Could there seemingly random acts of destruction also be intimidation? Absolutely.
Consider a home burglar looking to send a warning that he could return at any time. Vandalism could be a form of intimidation to that end. Such motivations cannot be ruled out.
3. A Cheap Thrill
A third possibility is something many of us don’t even want to consider: a burglar wreaking destruction on a home just to get a cheap thrill. The burglar is not satisfied with grabbing some jewelry and cash and getting out quickly. Instead, he needs to wander through every room and vandalize it.
It takes all kinds, right? Just like there are people who will deface public property for the thrill of it, there are some burglars who take pleasure in vandalizing homes. For whatever reason, they consider it part of the crime itself. A burglary isn’t complete until they have done some kind of damage.
Protection Against Burglary
Thinking about the reasons a burglar might engage in vandalism or property destruction leads to questions about how burglary can be prevented. At least it should. Property damage and vandalism raise the stakes. They make the crime of burglary more serious. And for many homeowners, property damage and vandalism increase the sense of violation that comes with burglary.
Experts have recommended the same preventative measures for years. The recommendations do not change because they work. Here are just some of the more common things experts suggest:
- Keeping windows and doors always locked.
- Installing heavy duty deadbolt locks on first floor doors.
- Installing a monitored home security system.
- Including video surveillance in a home security setup.
- Taking steps to make the home always look occupied.
- Cooperating with neighbors to keep an eye on the neighborhood.
The primary mechanism for preventing home burglary is making the crime as difficult as possible to get away with. Make life hard on a burglar and he will move to an easier target. It is not that you would want any of your neighbors to be victimized, it’s just that you want to protect yourself against burglary, property destruction, and vandalism.
