Geoff Manaugh changes the way you look at your neighborhood. He shows how a burglar would look at a building and its architecture. Manaugh takes you through the walls, down the elevator shafts, up the stairs, into the Panic Rooms, and across the roofs of an unsuspecting locality. If you’ve ever wanted to pick a lock, overcome an electronic surveillance system, or climb up walls to high-rise apartments, A Burglar’s Guide to the City is the book for you. Manaugh interviewed reformed bank robbers, FBI agents, private security consultants, and architects to provide the latest up-to-date information. If you want to protect yourself from a home invasion or just discourage burglars from choosing your home to hit, A Burglar’s Guide to the City will come in handy. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Space Invaders
2. Crime is Just Another Way to Use the City
3. Your Building is the Target
4. Tools of the Trade
5. Inside Job
6. A Crime is Nothing If You Can’t Get Away
7. Burglary Requires Architecture
References and Citations
Acknowledgements
This kind of book makes we worry about how you’re going to spend your retirement. Whatever you’re planning, George, DON’T DO IT!
Rick, every retiree needs a hobby!
I need to find a good place to hide jewelry! A paint can is apparently not the way to go.
Patti, I think the freezer would be a great place to hide “ice.”
Neither is the freezer!
Good one, Rick. I want to see George climbing over the roof and rappelling down the side of a high rise!
Our fire escape is outside the bedroom and bathroom, two windows I always keep locked. In addition, we’re the corner apartment on the top floor right on a very visible corner. If you could get up to the roof you would set off the alarm by opening the outside door to the roof.
Jackie’s parents once had their apartment in Brooklyn burglarized. It turned out to be the super, who had a key. I’m not really worried.
Jeff, it’s usually an inside job in those apartments. And, the motivation is usually drugs.
Thank goodness someone is helping the dumber thieves find the loot. An instruction manual for crime. Nice. Shouldn’t have been written, or published. Can’t imagine why you’d bother to read it, George.
Rick, I might consider writing about a burglar. Lawrence Block did pretty well with his.
I’ve seen movies where they unscrew the shower rod and hide things, but that can’t be too easy, can it? If you have an old-fashioned toilet tank you can hide a gun in there as in THE GODFATHER. Of course, that’s one of the first place a crook would look.
Jeff, we have no jewelry or valuables (other than thousands of books) in our house so no real burglar would consider us. Much more profitable targets abound!
I really hate to see books like this. I’d been broken into at my house 3 times before getting bars on the windows and security doors. First time, they removed louvered bathroom window, second time, broke in via rear kitchen window, last time, kicked in the front door. I was very lucky every time they didn’t trash the house
Maggie, sadly most criminals are not professional. They’re drug addicts looking for swag they can turn into drugs as fast as possible. They don’t think rationally so setting a home on fire might appeal to them depending on their mood.
Does he write about alarm systems too? Here in Hungary several friends have them, including cameras.
One already thought about dismantling it, becaus an alarm goes to the ecurity company and if they arrive and find out it was a false alarm he has to pay afaik …
Also my thinking is – if you have cameras and an alarm system that tells the burglars it might be worth it breaking into your house.
In Germany where we live break ins are a regular thing – destroy the glass of a terrace door or window and you’re in …
Does the book contain valuable hints (which the typical burglar doen’t know about already …) on what to do or not to do, where to put your valuables?
A bit OT – there’s an easier, violence-free way:
In Germany many older people keep lots of cash at home and we read every day in the newspaper about the “grandson trick”:
Someone calls and claims to be your grandson (which you haven’t seen for a long time so you don’t remember his voice …) and tells you he’s in financial difficulties (had an accident e g) and needs a few thousand € – he’ll send a friend over …
There are gangs (mainly from Eastern Europe) who do this for a living – the police sometimes catch them when a potential victim realises what’s going on and calls the police which waits for the “friend”. Right now a dozen members of a “crimal family” went to jail for this …
Wolf, the discussion about alarm systems is general. Alarm systems change every year and become more sophisticated. Of course, all that complexity can be a weakness. By reading in-between the lines, you can figure out what will frustrate most burglars. Gangs rarely go into the suburbs here. The police are everywhere and too many suburban households have plenty of guns.
Yes, George, guns probably make a difference …
But In Europe most people don’t own guns – and burglars usually don’t have guns either! So when they are found out or when they realise that the house is not empty they usaually give up.
Wolf, that’s true over here, too. And dogs seems to discourage burglars. They prefer easy targets.
Wolf, the “grandson scam” is common here too. I got an email from a “friend” stuck in London, whose passport and ID and all his money were supposedly stolen. They wanted me to wire money. As if. I emailed him to let him know his email address was hacked.
Jeff, this scam is common here, too. Somehow, my College email always contains a variation on the “Friend Who Needs Money.” And then there’s the Lottey I won in Africa, but I have to pay the “taxes” first before I collect! But people fall for these scams every day!
I didn’t know that the “grandson scam” was popular in the US too, thanks – haven’t looked at scam.com for some time, rather enjoy the debunking at snopes.com which often is very funny. You might call it gallows humour, considering how many people nowadays want to believe the fake news that is flooding the anti-social media.
I too used to get these letters from the Nigerian Princes – it seems they’re trying new variations now …
Spam filters obviously never work 100%.
Wolf, women writing emails to offer “friendship” is also a popular scam. A local guy sent $14,000 to a “woman” he fell in love with online. Later, he found out he has scammed by a guy pretending to be a young woman in France.
George, some people are really unbelievable in their – well, is it stupidity or?
Here a friend of my wife told us about her ex (he’s Austrian, retired):
He proudly told his ex-wife that he had found a new love in the USA – about half his age! And he’s neither intelligent nor rich nor good looking …
After exchanging many emails he sent her money for the flight and went to the airport in Vienna to wait for her on the date announced – but of course she didn’t come …
Then he got another email from her that her mother had fallen ill, she had to stay with her and also (of course …) needed some money for her medicine etc – could he help her again?
I don’t know how long it went on – in the end that “woman” gave up, never came to Europe of course …
Now the craziest part of it all was that he told his ex wife everything and kept whining that this was the reason why he couldn’t pay the alimony that was due to her!
My wife often told her she should get a lawyer – but she fell ill and now she’s dead (leukemia). The high (or low …) point of the whole affair was when he called us on the phone because he couldn’t reach his ex …
Can you imagine what I told him? I wouldn’t have minded him getting a heart attack, that SOB!
Wolf, scammers and con artists prey on the gullibility of people. They abuse the social trust most of us enjoy. Hopefully, their Bad Karma will catch up with them!
The good news is that they just take your money, don’t hurt your body – but probably your spirits while with burglars you run the risk of them using some weapon on you …
And often burglars destroy doors or windows which costs you more than what they steal from you.
Wolf, a professional burglar prefers a nice, clean heist. It’s the “break-and-grab” thugs who cause senseless damage.