Top 8 Places Burglars Look to Find Valuables ...

Under the mattress is perhaps one of the most common places where burglars always look for your valuables. This space to stash some cash is older than my grandparents and one of the first spots most crooks look for loot. This may be one of the worst places to put your valuables, but if you must place things here, consider making a small slit underneath the box spring, slide your valuables inside and seal it up with clear packing tape or sew it shut.

Thieves will head straight to the master bedroom since it’s where most people keep their jewelry and cash. Then they’ll rifle through the closet space, including inside pockets, looking for trinkets and treasures. When storing here what is worthwhile to you, think about putting it in boxes and label them something drab and boring like “baby clothes” or “old photos.”

A jewelry box on top of a dresser is an obvious hot-spot for would-be thieves ready to snag pricey gems and their next stop is digging through all those drawers. People often put valuables here hidden at the bottom, but you may want to put big ticket items inside of socks to get them looking elsewhere.

Unless it’s bolted to the ground, extremely heavy or encased inside a wall, most burglars want to get in and out as quickly as possible and won’t attempt lengthy safe-cracking maneuvers. But a small, portable safe will be quickly snagged and taken along with them. Instead, consider a “diversion” safe that is specifically designed to look like ordinary objects, like canned foods, books, soda and water bottles with your valuables stored safely inside.

BONUS TIP: When using diversion safes, the trick of this particular trade is using them to hide your treasures in plain sight. In other words, those disguised as canned food should be kept in the pantry, soda cans in the fridge, etc.

Crooks are often looking for prescription drugs to either resell or take themselves. While they may be easily replaced with a refill, it’s still a hassle, is time-consuming and could cause you medical issues. To save yourself from this grief you can put your important meds into a more generic container like an aspirin bottle or typical over-the-counter product box.

People think they’re being sneaky by putting cash into the freezer but this is also one of the oldest tricks in the book. If you are going to use this frozen stash box as a hiding spot, make it look as though it legitimately belongs there like inside a bag of frozen peas, wrapped in foil or inside a freezer bag and marked as “leftovers” or another specific food item.

With identity theft always on the rise, crooks are quick to look for checks, deposit slips or other paperwork found in and around desks containing your sensitive information. Try not to leave these items out in the open or even in the obvious boxes they arrive in from the bank. Instead, you can “misfile” them under something like “kids drawings” or another mundane heading a thief would quickly overlook.

Many of these cabinets have a lock to keep kids out of the adult beverage section and some people are tempted to put a few valuables into this more secure container. Again, burglars are on to this practice and will easily break the lock or glass to access these goods. If you’re trying to spare a bottle of your top shelf liquor from being stolen, try placing it on the bottom shelf in a kitchen cabinet behind cooking oils and vinegar.

Burglars are sneaky, dangerous criminals who take advantage of people who aren’t home and make off with our hard-earned valuables. In order to protect our property from loss, we can be just as devious by hiding our cash and stash in better locations hidden away from their filthy hands.