The Coral Gables Times

Warning to careless property holders! A recognized expert, now serving time in State Prison, tells How NOT To Attract A Burglar

BY #75996 SUMMERTIME is vacation time for most people, but it's harvest time for burglars. I spent ten years in that shady profession, and 90% of my work was done in the warm summer months when people are on the move. It's a time when no one thinks twice about a stranger in the neighborhood, and police have their hands full with tourist-swollen traffic. The houses left empty by vacationers are target number one for the prowler. Much of his time is devoted to locating them, and it pays off well. So well, according to FBI reports, that residence burglaries occur at the rate of one a minute, twenty-four hours a day. It's not hard for a professional burglar to learn what families are away on vacation. Some spot their intended victims before they leave just by listening to gossip in shopping centers. I used to carry a sample case from door to door, representing myself as a salesman for some such thing as wind-powered rotisseries or instant fertilizer. I never made any sales, but it was a dandy excuse for finding unoccupied houses and asking the neighbors when my prospective "clients" would be home. Many things can happen to an unoccupied house. Some professional colleagues of mine specialize in large-scale burglary, known in the trade as the "truck hustle." Using the salesman pitch, they locate a number of houses that will be empty for at least a week. Then they rent a large van and start making the rounds, posing as movers and loading up with expensive furnishings. If conditions are right they will completely strip a house. I never worked in the daytime and I never used a truck. But if I knew for sure a family was on vacation I went back at night when I had plenty of time and privacy. It was no trouble to pack a minimum of $500 worth of merchandise into my car. THE ONLY ACCOMPLICE I ever had was complacency. Most homeowners consider burglary a rare phenomenon that confines itself largely to jewelry stores. They seem to think there is nothing in their homes to interest a burglar unless they have a wall safe or expensive furs or gems or quantities of loose cash or negotiable securities. Those things are nice, but a burglar who took nothing else would end up on relief, or even have to go straight. When I break into a house, I am after things that can be easily disposed of, things that are found in every home. I look for new clothes, luggage, sports equipment, typewriters, cameras, radios (the pocketable transistor types), TV sets, power tools, and any other small but expensive appliances. In short, all the stuff I could get PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN ROSE Suburbia Today, July 1961 6