Thieves' tags — how to find out that your apartment is interested in robbers
Experienced apartment thieves rarely rely on chance. Before going "to work", they conduct a thorough investigation, finding out the level of well-being of the victim, as well as her habits and daily routine. Having carefully studied the object, criminals leave special marks that are understandable only to initiates. These secret signs contain important information that helps to clean the apartment quickly and with minimal risk.
Professional thieves have an extensive arsenal of techniques to help find a rich apartment. It includes a variety of methods, ranging from banal surveillance, and ending with the use of modern technical means. At the same time, the attackers do not disdain anything. They even inspect garbage containers, determining the standard of living of a potential victim from the waste.
They are interested in what the tenants of the apartment eat and drink, what brands of clothes they prefer, whether they use alcohol, drugs or expensive medicines. A real find for criminals can be receipts from stores, which can be used to determine expenses and preferences. In parallel, thieves can call the home phone or the intercom, making up the victim's work schedule.
Many people study mailboxes. A large number of receipts or flyers in them suggests that no one has been in the apartment for a long time and the owners are away. Some are not afraid to even come in person, or send gunners. These people often disguise themselves as employees of public utilities, postal workers and even sectarians.
Thieves attach pieces of paper, matches and threads to the doors of the planned apartment. If the object turns out to be shifted or damaged, then the door was opened. Even a rug that is out of place may indicate that someone is interested in the tenants. Often, all preparatory operations are done not by the burglars themselves, but by their accomplices — gunners. For their work, they get a share of the loot.
Gunners, having worked at a house or apartment, leave special thieves' marks. An uninitiated person will never recognize important messages in these scribbles and hieroglyphs. They appear on the walls of entrances, on fences, mailboxes and even on asphalt. It looks like they were drawn by children. Sometimes it is — teenagers and even preschoolers are sometimes attracted to marking. They do not arouse suspicion and can get into places where an adult cannot get to.
This is just one of the variants of the "language" of thieves' tags. There are a lot of them and often individual gangs come up with their own, special designations. Criminals also have international symbols, understandable as in Russia, and in Great Britain. Criminologists believe that this "thieves' Esperanto" is based on the so-called "Da Pinci code". This is a system of signs developed by criminals in the UK more than 100 years ago.
International signs may differ slightly in different countries. But thieves from India, Australia, Israel or Brazil will still understand what they are talking about. There are originals among the criminals. The owner of the house will never guess that a string tied to his fence with several knots accurately describes the time when he leaves and when he returns.
Thieves have the most work on holidays, as well as during the holiday season. At this time, there are especially many thieves' marks. The attackers also have a favorite time — this is the interval between 12 and 16 hours, when most people are at work. In order to clean an apartment, it usually does not take much time. The thief knows in advance what tools he will need to break the locks.
Apartment layouts, the level of audibility in the building and even the type of alarm system, if there is one, are well known to trained burglar masters. Many are sure that the presence of a partition on the floor separating one or more apartments by a door from the entrance increases security. This belief has cost property to many citizens.
Guided by the marks left by the gunners, the thief will choose the moment when all the apartments will be empty. After that, he will only need to crack the door to the partition, which is rarely reliable. Closing it behind him, the criminal gets the opportunity to work quietly on apartment locks without fear of prying eyes. Thus, all apartments located behind one door are "surrounded" at once.