25 Hiding Spots a Burglar Walks Straight Past (31 Years as a Locksmith)

A burglar is inside most houses for under ten minutes, and he is not searching yours, he is sampling it. He has a short mental map he built before he reached your street: the nightstand, the dresser, the closet shelf, under the mattress, the bathroom cabinet, the freezer and the cereal box. Twenty five places that are off that map, counting down, and number one is not a hiding place at all. It is the thing people buy specifically to solve this problem, and handing it to him is the biggest favor you can do him. 0:00 Under ten minutes inside, and what that means 1:12 His map is short: the five places he always checks 2:05 25. The kick panel under your kitchen cabinets 2:48 24. The storage box with the dullest label you can write 3:30 23. The inside pocket of a coat on a hanger 4:11 22. The space under a loose stair tread 5:18 A cigar box off a closet shelf, and why it was taken 6:11 21. The cavity under a window stool 6:52 20. Behind a wainscot panel 7:29 19. The door jamb cavity 8:05 18. The bathtub access panel 8:44 17. The pedestal of a sewing machine cabinet 9:19 16. The channel of a shop light 10:14 15. A rug rolled up in a corner 10:50 14. The vacuum cleaner bag compartment 11:25 13. The dishwasher kick panel 12:03 12. A hollow handrail 12:33 11. The spare tire well 13:13 10. The hollow closet rod 13:39 9. The weighted hem of a curtain 14:09 8. A hollow block in the woodpile 14:59 7. A paint can with a skin on it 15:33 6. The pet food bin and the litter box corner 16:19 5. The whirlpool tub pump panel 16:49 4. The old tool chest, under the tray 17:24 3. The plumbing access panel 17:55 2. A drawer that is not a drawer THE RULE BEHIND ALL TWENTY FIVE: a spot does not have to be undiscoverable, it has to be off his map. Off the map means one of three things. It looks like part of the building rather than furniture. It is unpleasant or awkward to get into. Or it is boring enough that his eyes slide over it. WHAT THE RESEARCH SUPPORTS: most residential burglaries last under ten minutes. Burglars go first to bedrooms, jewelry boxes, dressers, closets, under mattresses and medicine cabinets, and freezers and pantry containers are now standard stops rather than clever hiding places. Children's rooms tend to get skipped. Removable building components — wainscot panels, floor panels, door jambs, window sills, cabinet doors — are recommended by home inspectors precisely because they do not read as storage. A box in the garage with a tedious label works through diversion. In a University of North Carolina at Charlotte study of 422 incarcerated burglars, about 60 percent said a visible alarm would send them to a different house, and most described their decisions as opportunistic rather than planned. ON NUMBER ONE: an unbolted safe is a container that gathers everything valuable into one place and adds a handle. Any safe worth owning ships with mounting holes and hardware. Bolt it through the floor into a joist, into a slab, or into studs at the back of a closet. If you cannot bolt it, a safe is the wrong tool and everything above is free. Nothing in this video involves confronting anybody, and no time in it was measured with a stopwatch by me. Tell me which of the twenty five you already use. I read every one.