What to do after your home or business has been broken into?
Unfortunately most people won’t have a second to read this after a break-in. No one stops to think about what to do after a break-in and checks the internet for help. With that said, we’re hoping this is something that gets read before you experience a break-in, of course we hope that never happens but best to be prepared for the worst, right?
After a break-in it is very important to stay calm and think. You want to be sure you, and others are safe. Is the person(s) who broke in to your home or business still in the building? Did you walk in during the break-in? Don’t ever assume you’re alone. With that said, remove yourself and others from the building immediately and quietly. At the same time, or immediately after you’ve exited the building you will want to call 911. If you’re calling while you are walking out be sure to continue to pay attention to your surroundings and follow the instructions from the 911 operator. Do not re-enter the building at this time! This is very important as you could be seen as the robber instead of the victim. While you wait for police to respond tell everyone in your group to stay together and keep your hands out of your pockets, out from behind your back, and stay out of any vehicles. If there are people away from the group the police may see that person(s) as a potential suspect which will take time away from catching the real perpetrator. Once the police arrive try hard to tell them just the facts, nothing that you are assuming is important at this point. Once the police have searched the building and areas around the building for the suspect things will calm down and you will be able to talk in more detail with the police.
Even if the police don’t ask for this, be sure to get together all of the serial numbers of the items that were stolen. If you don’t have the serial numbers you can check to see if you have the original boxes. Many times manufacturers will put the product serial number on the outside of the box for many expensive electronics like laptops, cameras, etc. If you do not have the boxes then see if you can locate the original receipt. Many times on expensive equipment the store you bought it from will also print the serial number right on your receipt. These serial numbers can be entered into a national database. This database is used by police to check for stolen items. So in the event police run serial numbers on products they come across, your serial numbers would come up as “Stolen” in that database and can be traced back to you as the proper owner.
Serial numbers are also used by many pawn shops, in some states it’s the law that pawn shops record serial numbers and enter them into their system for possible matching to any stolen items.
Even if you only get one or two serial numbers from all your searching its worth every minute of your efforts. If one of those items comes up during a search, or at a pawn shop, then there is a fairly good chance you will catch the person responsible, and maybe recover all of your stolen items, maybe even things that have no serial numbers, like antiques, silver or gold items, jewelry, etc.
From this point, call the police department every two weeks or so to check for any updates. Only do this a few times. After that it just becomes a waiting game in hopes something comes up in the future that might match what happened to you. The police want to catch this person(s) responsible also and will need your cooperation to help make that happen.