[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s unthinkable to many of us that we could ever be the victims of burglary or any crime. Sure, you hear about it happening your whole life, but you can live a long, long time and never experience it yourself.
But it’s a big world out there, and sometimes you just fit into the statistics.
The first thing to do after you’ve become the victim of a burglary is: not panic.
This is a scary, emotional, and deeply disturbing event. Anyone would feel the same. Right now is the time for stopping to breathe and assess the situation.
However, given that, there are some concrete steps that you can and should take to correct, as best you can, what’s happened and come out stronger than before.
Here are three tips to follow after falling victim to burglary.
Call the Police as Soon as Possible
Police investigate burglaries to try to determine what happened, so it’s vital that you notify them as soon as you can. Don’t call them while you’re still frantic or emotional, though. You’ll need to provide some information over the phone, so it’s best to talk to them with a clear head. Answer whatever they ask you and be sure to cooperate with their requests when they show up.
Once at your home, police will look into the evidence to see if they can find any clues as to who may have committed the crime.
Review Any Existing Security Footage
If you’ve chosen one of the many home security systems out there and keep it armed any time you’re not home or at night, now is the time to review the footage. This is why these things exist. You can sit down calmly and go back over the last several hours to see who might have been hanging around your property.
Police will be interested in this, as well, since they may be able to identify the perpetrators by face or license plate on a vehicle. If you don’t have a security system, perhaps now is the time to get one, for your peace of mind and for the concrete safety of your house.
Go Through Your Things
One particularly unfortunate part of being the victim of a burglary is that you now have to become a kind of auditor, taking stock of your possessions to determine what you’re missing.
For the most part, it should be fairly easy. The things thieves want include money, jewellery, electronics, and the like. But you’ll have to assemble a fairly complete list of your losses so that you can submit a claim to your home insurance company for your damages.
It’s tedious, and no one really wants to do it, but you’ll thank yourself for taking the time for this when you’re able to recover financially from what was taken.
You won’t be able to take back what has happened to you, but you can surely do whatever you can to ensure it’s much less likely to happen again. Have police look into the crime scene, get a security system if you don’t have one now, and be vigilant about who’s around your house.
With these things in hand, you’ll put yourself in a much better spot in the future.
