There are criminals out there. Crime happens – no matter how careful you are you could be unlucky and find that you are the victim of some crime or other.

What should you do and why would you do it? The advice below should help.

Reporting Incidents to the Police

If you do have to make a telephone call about a suspicious caller, be ready to give as good a description as you can. If all you can report is ‘A guy with black hair’, don’t expect the police to find him. The police need to know who to look out for. Your description of a guy with black hair is of little or no use, but at least the police can exclude females from their search!

The police may well want to find and detain your suspicious character to talk to him, so they really want to know who to look for while they are driving around or checking via CCTV cameras in the town. For those purposes they need some easy identifiers. If your description of the suspect was white male, six foot six inches tall, shaved head, white trousers and a dark blue jumper, they have something to work on. Knowing that they can ignore anyone with hair, anyone who is short, any women and children, etc. They can more easily keep an eye out for very tall bald guys with white trousers and dark blue jumper.

When they find him they may want further details to confirm they have the right man, so the rest of your description will be invaluable. The rest of your description might include the fact that he spoke with a Welsh accent and that there was a little red crest on the left breast of his jumper. The man you saw also had nicotine stains on the fingers of his left hand, a snake tattoo on the back of his right hand and he presented what looked like a home-made gas company identity card stating he was Frank James – District Assessor.

That should give the police plenty to work on. If Mr Frank James really is the District Assessor with the local gas company he won’t mind you being careful. If he isn’t, he will wish he hadn’t come to your door!

As with any similar matters, when you have to report matters to the police, as soon as possible after the encounter write down as much as you can while it is fresh in your mind. That way, names, car registration numbers and other such detail don’t get lost or confused.

Descriptions

Depending on the circumstances a full description for each person involved would include as much of the following as possible:

• sex
• age
• height
• weight/build
• race/colour
• hair colour/length/style/ornaments, etc.
• clothing/style/colour/markings, etc.
• jewellery
• identifying marks – tattoos/birth marks/scars, etc.
• voice/accent/impediment (stutter)
• names used – called himself Frank James, or colleague called him ‘Barry’, etc.
• anything carried – bag/briefcase/clipboard
• other identifying features, e.g. limp on left leg
• what he said – e.g. Claimed to be charity collector
• what they touched/ate/drank, etc.
• anyone else in the area who could give an independent description to police – e.g. ‘He called on Mrs Biggins at number 42 before he came to me’
• if they had a vehicle:
  • make
  • model
  • colour
  • age
  • registration number or partial number if that’s all you saw
  • markings, e.g. ‘Grabbit & Scarper – Builders’ in black lettering on side of light blue van – no phone number shown
  • other identifying features, e.g. rusty roof rack, broken left headlight, etc.
  • direction of travel if it has left the scene, e.g. they turned left onto the A40 heading into town.

The more detail you can supply, the easier you make it for the police to track down the culprit. If you are a witness to any crime, you should be using your powers of observation and filing details away in your memory so that you can accurately report them later.

Report immediately

As soon as it is practical you should report any crime to the authorities, with as much detail as possible. If you report crimes quickly, the criminals will still be in the area, they may still be carrying the proceeds of the crime, they will be wearing the same clothes and probably will still be with any accomplices, all of which makes them easier to spot. The longer you wait to report the crime, the harder it gets, as they will have left the area, changed clothes and passed on incriminating items, giving the police less grounds to stop and detain them.

Tell the police about any evidence

When you report crimes, ask if somebody will be coming to look for fingerprints or other evidence. Tell the police what you have found. If they say they will be sending somebody, ask when they will come, because you don’t want to leave broken glass in the kitchen for a week. If they are delayed and if the guy touched your kettle tell them you want to use it because you are desperate for a cup of tea! If a window was broken and the guy touched the broken glass or cut his hand and left blood on the glass tell the police. If it’s raining or there’s thick fog or the conditions are frosty it may erase evidence, so you may want to explain to the police that there is broken glass with blood on it in the flowerbed under the window and that it is starting to rain. The police may advise you to protect or retrieve that evidence for them, but only touch things if the police tell you to or say it is OK and then only do what you are told.

If they say an expert will be visiting you but that will be at some time after the weekend, or in the next two days, explain your circumstances. For example, you could tell them that in order to shut the back door you will have to tidy up, or perhaps that you need to tidy the bedroom so you can go to bed. Maybe you will have to get a window boarded up or repaired because the criminal broke it, whatever the circumstances explain them to the police.

Imagine, for example, that you have been visited by a bogus council inspector and now realise that an antique gold pocket watch has gone missing. You call the police and pass on as much detail as you can, so that they can start looking for the thief and they tell you an officer will come around to fill in a crime report. Is there anything else that you can do? The answer is yes, quite a bit actually: protect, record, search and detail:

Protect

The police will probably send a fingerprint expert around to look at the premises. If you were there, and you know what the criminal touched, so you should make a note of that, and protect any surfaces that may still contain his fingerprints. The criminal may have asked for a glass of water, or taken a bite out of a biscuit while he was there. Anything he touched should be protected for the fingerprint experts to look at.

Record

The police are often very busy, which means that there may be nobody free to talk to you until later that day. For that reason I always suggest that victims should sit and write down as much as they can remember while it is fresh in their mind. Record the age, sex, height, etc. of the offender, but also try to make a quick note of what he did from the time he came in to the time he left. What did he say? What did he touch? Did he sneeze into a tissue that he threw into the bin? Make a little note of everything, before you forget. If he touched anything, DON’T touch it until the police have had a chance to look at it. If he emptied the contents of the desk drawers onto the living room carpet, no matter how tempting it is to pick it all up, leave it there for the police to see. They have skills and experience that you don’t have, and while there may be no clues in the untidy heap on the living room carpet, if there are any clues there you don’t want to lose them by being tidy!

If the criminal left by the back door then walked through the flowerbed and jumped over the back fence, take a look. If there is a set of his footprints in the rose border, point them out to the police when they come. If it is coming on to rain and you don’t know when the police will arrive, consider protecting the footprints if you can. A dustbin lid or a sheet of plastic will protect the print from the rain, as long as you are careful not to damage the prints while you are doing it.

Search

You have given the police as much information about the criminal as you can. You have told him that grandfather’s antique gold pocket watch is missing, but is that all? You noticed the watch was missing but did the criminal take anything else? If you can do so without disturbing evidence, you should check to see if anything else is missing. Is grandmother’s Edwardian diamond necklace still in its box in the top drawer? Stop to think. Where did the criminal go, what did he have access to? If he didn’t go near the back bedroom, your savings in the wardrobe are safe. He was alone in the kitchen for a while, did he find the bank books and credit cards in your handbag? Did he get the money in the cash tin that you keep behind the blue glass vase in the kitchen cupboard?

Think about where he went in the house, what he had access to and what he may have taken. Carefully take a look to see if there is something else he has taken and make a note of it. Also make a note that to get to that cash box, for example, he would have had to open the cupboard door and move the blue glass vase to get to it.

Remember, – don’t destroy any evidence. By opening the cash box you could rub out his fingerprints. Using the example of the cash box behind the blue glass vase in the kitchen cupboard, let us explore further and see how we can protect any possible evidence by being careful. A long serving inspector once told me the most important thing to do when searching is to stop, stand back and search with your eyes first! Don’t rush in and move everything, stand at the door and look at the evidence in front of you. By taking the time to do that you should know where the critical and valuable evidence is before you even step into the room.

So we have called the police and are awaiting an officer. In the meantime we are protecting the things we know the criminal touched but are looking to see if there is anything else missing. In the kitchen we can’t see any signs that anyone touched the cupboards, but just in case we open the doors without touching the plastic handles! The first two only contain food and pots and they haven’t been disturbed, the last cupboard has our cash box so we take extra care with that. Again we open the door without touching the plastic handle, and inside we can see that the glass vase has been moved and that the cash box lid is half open.

DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING. It is likely that the vase and the cash box and maybe the contents of the cash box have fingerprints on them and if we go any further we may smudge them. Make a note so that when the police come we can tell them that it looks like the criminal moved the vase, opened the cash box, then put the box and the vase back in the cupboard – the fingerprint expert will want to take a look at that!

Details

We have protected evidence, recorded what we know so we don’t forget anything, searched to see if anything else is missing while being careful not to damage or remove any evidence the criminal left. The last thing we can do is to prepare details.

We knew that grandfather’s antique gold watch is missing and following the search we know that the digital camera has gone too. Because we are security minded we have more detail than that, so we search our records, then when the police arrive we can give them details. We can give them the exact details of the gold watch, a recent valuation, a photo with a scale on it, and the wording of the engraving inside the watch case. We can also give the police the make, model and serial number of the digital camera that has been taken. More than that we can say it was in a black leather case, and the photographs held in its memory feature Aunt Mary and crowds on the beach at Brighton on a sunny day.

With all of that information the police will be pleased to speak to somebody who is so organised and security conscious. It will make a change from the victims who can barely remember what was taken, let alone what the make, model and serial numbers were.

Discovering an Intruder

Though most burglars will not attack a house if there are people at home, people have been known to wake at night or hear noises in other rooms during the day. If an intruder has entered your house, they will want to get away as soon as they can. They will not want to come face to face with you.

It is suggested that you should NOT attempt to challenge, detain or capture an intruder. You do not know what state of mind they are in. You do not know if they are under the influence of drugs. Perhaps they would be scared enough to use the screwdriver they used to break the window open as a weapon. There are dozens of arguments against tackling an intruder, so let them go.

Coming Home to an Intruder

Very rarely, a householder will come home and find that the front door is open, and even more rarely, there is somebody moving around upstairs using a torch to search for valuables.

Again, the best advice is not to challenge them. Even if you are a rugby team sharing a house, you don’t know who is in the building and what weapons they may have. Quietly move to safety and call the police.

Get a Police Crime Reference Number

When you report a crime to the police they usually take the details and give you a reference number that relates to that crime report, but they may call it something different. If they give you a crime reference number make a note of it because you will need it. If they don’t give you a reference number ask for one.

After a Burglary

Following the ‘protect, record, search, detail’ procedure, protect the rest of your valuables and any evidence there may be. Record everything you know as soon as you can, as by tomorrow you might have forgotten the registration number of the van the burglar used! Search as far as you can without disturbing evidence to see what else has been disturbed and/or taken. Produce as much detail as you can for the police – make, model, serial number, photographs, etc. will all be very helpful in tracing the property and identifying the criminal.

Report and Make Insurance Claim

Assuming you have insurance, you should contact the insurance company to report the crime and to ask for appropriate claim forms to be sent to you. If you make a claim, report the details of everything that has been lost, but note that other things may be missing which you have not yet missed.

Most insurance claims require you to give them the crime reference number, which the police gave to you when you reported the crime. Without that crime reference number they may not allow you to make a claim – which means if you don’t report it to the police you won’t be able to claim on your insurance.

Investigate and Resolve Vulnerability

Because you have been the victim of crime, perform an urgent security review of the property, concentrating on the point of weakness where the intruder gained access. There may not be a weakness, the criminal may, for example, have smashed the patio doors with a slab of concrete to gain access. If they did there is little you can do to prevent that sort of attack (although in that example you could have removed the old broken slabs so the criminal had nothing to use to break the patio windows).

Perhaps when you hired Mrs Biggins to clean the house for you every Thursday, you failed to check her references. Perhaps the Mrs Jones she claimed she cleaned for without a problem for ten years doesn’t exist, or perhaps she does and she sacked Mrs Biggins for taking money from the house.

Whatever the vulnerability, threat or risk, review it now and urgently implement countermeasures where possible to prevent any further loss.

When you do so, remember not to make your house too secure. Sometimes there is a backlash against becoming a victim, which makes people introduce ultra security, triple locking and bolting all of the doors and putting steel bars on the windows. Remember that if there is a fire or other emergency you want to be able to get out in a hurry, so only take reasonable countermeasures.

Make It Your Home Again

Don’t underestimate the impact a crime can have on the victim. Home is your private domain, a place where you can relax and feel safe. To many people a burglary or other criminal intrusion damages or destroys that feeling of safety and security. In their mind the home feels corrupted and sullied because the criminal has violated their sanctity.

Happy family memories have been overwritten so the whole house now contains memories of that intrusion. Every time the homeowner uses the stairs they see in their mind the burglar creeping up and down those stairs. When they go into the bedroom, in their mind’s eye they see the criminal searching through the dressing table and taking their jewellery.

This feeling that the home is just a building now, that the safety and comfort factor has been removed, that the feeling of peace has been corrupted, is more usual and often stronger among women than it is among men. Men do feel the same things but either they hide it, suppress it or get over it more quickly than women do.

That ‘bad feeling’ in the house often causes a lot of additional and ongoing stress to the residents after the crime. It does fade over time, but I have known people to sell up and move house because they cannot abide the memories of the intrusion and violation they feel their life has suffered at the hands of a criminal.

If it helps, I am told that those feelings can be erased, overwritten, washed away or counterbalanced with ‘good memories’. The victims of intruder crimes have found that the following measures have helped to make their house feel like home again.

Fix the problem

As stated above your first and most important action is to fix the problem. Find out how the criminal bypassed or overcame your security and introduce new countermeasures to stop anyone else doing the same thing. You will sleep easier knowing that your security is tight once again.

Refresh or remove

Where possible and where you can afford to do so, dispose of anything that has been sullied by the touch of the criminal. I remember one lady was distraught that a burglar had rummaged through her underwear drawer looking for valuables, and refused to wear any of her clothes again. You can buy new clothes (send any unwanted clothes to the charity shop). If furniture is involved, you can swap a ‘tainted’ dressing table with a similar one at a second-hand shop for a minimal fee, or swap it with Aunt Mary for free!

For curtains and bedding, you may be able to swap them with relatives, so that those ‘contaminated’ by the intruder will be removed and ‘safe’ bedding and curtains can be put up in their place. It may be possible to recover something that was corrupted by an intruder – for example, have the carpets professionally cleaned to remove all traces of the villain. The basic rule is to take any steps you can to refresh the home.

Decorate

Decorating can help. The smell of fresh paint, somehow masks and removes the ‘smell’ and feel of the criminal’s presence. Giving the house a makeover and fresh new look helps as well, by distancing the current home from the home that was violated by an uncaring intruder. For most women a home makeover is overdue the day after you finish decorating anyway!

Party

When you have taken as many of the above steps as are practical to remove traces of the intruder, you should have a party. Invite as many good friends and relatives as you can. Warn them that any discussion, mention of or questions about the crime will destroy what you have been trying to do. Do everything you can to make it the happiest party ever. The party will then flood the new look home with new happy memories revolving around friends, fun and a good time.

Start again

One lady I know of was so traumatised by the intrusion into her home that she wanted to sell up and move out. Her husband suggested that she go to stay with their daughter for a holiday. While she was away, he installed new door and window locks, a burglar alarm and passive sensor operated lighting on the sides and rear of the house, decorated throughout and upgraded the kitchen. When she came back she said it was like coming into a new house, and they threw a big party to celebrate their ‘new’ house.

Hopefully all of those actions will make the home feel like a safe shelter from the world again. Remember to still be sensitive to the feelings of anyone badly affected by an intruder. Try not to mention it or anything to do with it. Try to build on the feeling of peace and security that person has. If they want to be quiet, let them. If they want to search for new super strength door locks, help them. Do anything you can to help that person rebuild the feeling of security that they need.