(Greene County, IL) – Monday, October 19, 2021 was like any other day. My wife, who usually rides with me, drove herself to work. When I arrived home, I unlocked the door and in that instant, our world changed.

The house was wrecked. At first glance, I thought that our dog had caused it. Then I knew it was much worse. We had been burglarized.

Right out of the gate, I did all the wrong things. I went inside unarmed, looked around, and closed the open refrigerator door.

Then it occurred to me I should get out, get armed, and call the police.

I made a rookie mistake with the 911 operator. She asked, “Are they still there?”

I replied, “No, they’d be dead if they were.” Not ideal for later legal defense.

The police were friendly, but very disappointing. They explained that it’s sort of like winning the lottery, but in reverse. Everyday someone gets broken into, today was just our day. They did not take fingerprints or look for DNA. They assured us that it was almost certainly a one-time thing, and we should return to life as usual.

That was great, until two days later. That afternoon, at 4pm, I again opened the door to a house destroyed. This time was far worse. It seems the first day was a scouting run, and this time they came prepared to haul off everything not bolted down. They came close.

I missed them by minutes as still-frozen ice cubes remained on the floor. They’d cleaned out our cupboards and all three freezers including 100 pounds of burger, steak and bacon.

This time we insisted on the state crime lab collecting evidence. It took quite a bit of pressure, but the locals finally called the ISP for help.

Later, we found evidence suggesting the burglary crew may have been laying in wait for us to leave that morning. And they were obviously there for hours.

This was too much. The wife and I were done.

The way they had tossed the house, it left us wondering if they thought that there was something here of far greater value. Would they return in the night to “ask” us to give whatever it was they thought we had?

We knew we had barely missed them, twice, and they now had guns stolen from us.

So we loaded our RV and left that night. Our safety was worth more than staying in our home. I came home to check the house each night after work, only to find they had returned on Friday to clean out the outbuildings.

Unfortunately for them, I’d parked a flatbed trailer sideways blocking the doors to the pole barn, then removed the tires and left it on the ground. This seems to be all that saved our two classic cars inside as the burglary crew already had the keys and titles. They also damaged my loader tractor attempting to hotwire it, probably to move the trailer out of the way.

Three times in one week, in broad daylight, our home had been broken into by at least three people judging by the tracks. Police continued to be polite and concerned but it’s a small county with a tight budget. This was “just another burglary” to them. Even after three burglaries in the same week.

While this was “just another burglary” to the small county sheriff’s office, it was personal for us.

I’m writing because we’ve learned a lot since this happened. We’ve spent a lot of time researching how to harden our residence.

Lessons learned.
Here are some things we’ve learned.

Have layered surveillance.

We had a four camera surveillance system, but our rural internet wouldn’t support live streaming. The cameras proved no deterrence and they grabbed the DVR on their first visit.

As a solution, we bought a Spartan Ghost stand-alone cellular game camera with GPS tracking. If it’s stolen, it can be found. After installing it, we got their picture.

Windows.

We applied 3M window film over the glass to make an intruder work to get through our glass. J&J Inc. in Greenview, IL proved a joy to work with.

Because we had beautiful, full-light stained glass panel doors, we added door bars on all exterior doors. I built my own mostly due to time constraints, but there are many options available.

The suspect vehicle from northern Greene County (southwest of Jacksonville).

It’s a silver, roughly 2005 Dodge Ram pickup truck extended or crew cab, with a long bed and only a 2-wheel drive. It’s got a black toolbox and some sort of unique sticker on the fuel door. If you know who owns this truck, contact GSL leadership.

Better, more secure doors.
Our doors are no longer contractor-grade. They’re beefy, sturdy and look just as imposing. Be sure to pay particular attention to windows and doors not visible from the road/street out front of your home.

Alarm.

We also installed a SimpliSafe security system. Bought used from eBay, SimpliSafe activated it no questions asked. The system is easy to set up and has a large selection of sensors and monitoring packages.

Obfuscate your schedule.
Something else we can all do that’s virtually free: Don’t keep a regular routine. We parked outside our garage when we were home until all this. No more. Now, bad guys will have to guess if we’re home or not. We added blinds to garage windows and doors to keep prying eyes from seeing if we’re home. We put up a sign asking people not to knock as I now work “third shift.”

Big dogs can be a deterrent. Sadly, we lost our big labs the year before, and had been enjoying the company of our little rat terrier. He’s a good alarm at night but not much help against three intruders during the day.

As a passive measure, we ordered a “Tracemark.” It’s a tiny microstamp nearly invisible to the naked eye that will imprint up to ten characters. We used our last name as undeniable proof of ownership.

Be proactive.
It may never happen to you, but it CAN happen. A few hours and dollars spent today can harden your residence tremendously. And you don’t have to make your house look like Ft. Knox. It just has to look a lot less inviting than your neighbor’s house.

Making your place less inviting will save you the deeply troubling feeling of being violated by an intruder taking your stuff. Dealing with the insurance company also sucks, as does spending money and time replacing valuables.

Don’t count on passive measures to keep you safe.

In today’s world, whatever you use should alert you in real time to an intrusion in your home, so you can deal with it right then and there.

It doesn’t have to be expensive; it just has to work.