When you think about hiding your valuables, you probably have a few clever spots in mind. You might tuck your emergency cash inside a book, hide your jewelry in a sock drawer, or stash important documents in a filing cabinet. You feel a sense of security, believing you’ve outsmarted any potential intruder. But the hard truth is that your brilliant hiding place is likely the first place a burglar is going to look. Burglars are creatures of habit and efficiency. They have a mental checklist of common hiding spots, and they know how to search a home in a matter of minutes. Understanding the places burglars always check can help you rethink your strategy.
Here are seven of the most common—and least secure—hiding spots in your home.
1. The Master Bedroom Closet
This is the absolute first stop for almost every burglar. They know that the master bedroom is the heart of the home, where people keep their most valuable and personal items. They will immediately head to the closet. Rifle through the pockets of your coats and jackets. Also dump out any shoeboxes or storage containers on the top shelf.
People often believe that a high shelf is a secure spot, but burglars will bring a chair from the dining room to check it. The master closet is considered the jackpot. It’s where they expect to find cash, jewelry, and small electronics.
2. The Underwear and Sock Drawer
This is the oldest trick in the book, and burglars know it well. For generations, people have been told to hide cash and jewelry by rolling it up in a pair of socks or tucking it beneath their undergarments. It has become such a cliché that it is now one of the most predictable places burglars always check. A burglar will not be shy about dumping out your entire dresser drawer onto the floor. They can sift through it in a matter of seconds. Hiding your valuables in your underwear drawer is only hiding them from yourself, not from a criminal.
3. The Freezer or Refrigerator
Hiding cash in a Ziploc bag inside a frozen lasagna box seems like a genius move. No one would ever think to look there, right? Wrong. This is another piece of common knowledge that has been passed down through the years, and burglars are well aware of it. They will take a few seconds to open your freezer and feel around inside any large, opaque containers. The “cash in the cold” trick is no longer a secret. It’s a well-known hiding spot that offers a false sense of security.
4. The Medicine Cabinet in the Bathroom
The bathroom medicine cabinet is a prime target for two reasons. First, burglars are looking for prescription medications that have a high street value, particularly painkillers and anxiety medication. These can be just as valuable to them as cash. Second, they know that people often store small, valuable items like a special piece of jewelry or emergency cash in an empty prescription bottle. They can sweep the entire contents of a medicine cabinet into their bag in less than ten seconds. It’s a quick and easy score for them.
5. The Underside of a Drawer or a Taped Envelope
You might think you are being clever by taping an envelope full of cash to the bottom of a kitchen drawer or the underside of a heavy piece of furniture. Burglars are trained to think in three dimensions. They will quickly pull drawers all the way out of the dresser to check underneath them. They will also run their hands along the bottoms of tables, desks, and shelves. This is a common technique that they use to find items that have been deliberately concealed from a top-down view.
6. The Classic “Hollowed-Out Book”
The idea of a secret safe disguised as a book is a classic trope in movies and literature. Because it is so well-known, it is also completely useless as a real hiding place. A burglar who sees a bookshelf will often perform a quick “sweep,” running their hand along the tops of the books to feel for anything that seems out of place or has an unusual weight. A hollowed-out book is an obvious target. Unless you have hundreds of books, it doesn’t take long for them to find the one that doesn’t feel right.
7. The Office Filing Cabinet or Desk Drawer
This seems like a logical place to keep important documents like passports, birth certificates, and spare cash. Unfortunately, it’s also a logical place for a burglar to look. A standard home office filing cabinet can be pried open in seconds with a simple screwdriver or a crowbar. They are not secure safes. A burglar will quickly go through your files looking for cash, checks, and any documents they can use for identity theft. This is one of the first places they will ransack.
Think Like a Criminal to Protect Your Property
So, where should you hide your valuables? The best advice is to think unconventionally. Burglars are in a hurry. They are looking for the most common and easily accessible spots. They are not going to spend time unscrewing an electrical outlet plate or searching through a box of children’s toys in the playroom. The more inconvenient, uninteresting, or difficult a hiding spot is to access, the safer it will be. Of course, the only truly secure place for your most valuable items is a bolted-down, fireproof safe or a safe deposit box at a bank.
What is the most clever or unusual hiding spot for valuables you’ve ever heard of?
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The post Burglars Always Check These 7 Unexpected Spots First—Are You Hiding Valuables There? appeared first on Budget and the Bees.
