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The thieves had to have been there a while. The house was either secluded or in a neighborhood where nobody knows their neighbors very well. I remember an incident about 20 years ago on Hayden Island where a lady went on an extended vacation and came home to a very empty house. A burglar had broken in and lived in the place for a few weeks. He even had a garage sale and sold everything in the house and no one suspected a thing. The lady comes home to a vacant house, what a landing after a nice vacation.. Don't remember whether they ever caught the guy.
 
I didn't read the story, but this is a good reminder to make sure to add your valuables to our insurance policy. I think a umbrella policy is needed also. Pictures, papers, etc on valuables.
 
Might be worth putting it in a safety deposit box while you are gone for extended periods.

I think having a friend or family member house sit would be my plan.

When in doubt STFU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have no doubt that these three things combined would have prevented these people's loss. I have read my home owner's policy, and the coverage for firearms and related items (optics, ammo, etc.) is limited to $2000. I don't recall what it was for jewelry and precious metals, but it wasn't much. There is a reason I have a safety deposit box and I don't leave town, not even for a weekend, without a housesitter.
 
MOST safes only have thick doors and fronts the other 5 sides are just heavy gauge sheet metal. only designed to slow down a burglar, not stop a determined one who has plenty of time. I have always had monitired alarms and insurance.
 
The first rule of having $171k worth of stuff in your house is don't talk about having $171k worth of stuff in your house.
Just re-read post, guy had,

gold, platinum and silver coins and ingots, plus some cash. What's a rich paranoid survivalist supposed to do with his stash? Of course keep quiet but what.... bury some? It is a dilemma. He definitely should have spread it around. Then again maybe he did and this is only a small portion.
 
If you have a lot of valuables get a liberty, browning or better gun safe. No hinges on the outside. Bolt it down!Forty plus gun safes weigh 700lbs and up which is helpful. Alarm systems, hidden cameras or real time picture upload are mandatory in my opinion. Put safe were people cant see them. Most of the cheap safes can be compromised with nothing more than a butter knife. Most home owners/renters insurance only cover approximately $2000 worth of firearms thief. So buy supplemental insurance. If you have precious metal, you need Fort Knox level of protection and might find it cheaper to do safety deposit box for it. This spreads out your risk. Finally, remember moisture and water are also a great risk so use desiccants. There is a limitation on square footage per desiccant and you can bake the moisture out of them at 200 degrees F on a cookie sheet (set a timer and don't go hotter than 200 F). I do this every 3-4 months since the pacific northwest is so rainy (humidity). I you have kids there is a whole different level of safety to think about. I have done a lot of research but could always learn from others ideas and experiences.
 
Might be worth putting it in a safety deposit box while you are gone for extended periods.
Exactly. That's what I would have done. I would have kept the valuables in a safety deposit box full time anyway. Why do gold ingots and coins and need to be left in the house all the time?
I pay about $30 a year for a safety deposit box, and I don't have to worry about anyone breaking into it.
 
Security system is the only way to go. A family member of mine has one, and if a bird hits the window, or a cougar walks across the deck, they get text alerts on their phone. And its not as expensive as most think, and you get a discount on your homeowners insurance. When the family member goes on vacation, they have me stop by once a day, even though I tell them the cops will know of a break in before I get get off work. But they pay me to stop by and water the plants and look things over.
 
Amazing that anyone that had those kind of assets in a gun safe would not have an alarm system to back it up. Plus put the valuables in a bank safe deposit box.

They sure would be disappointed if they had broke into my gun safe. No money, no silver, no Rolex watches, no stock certificates only lonely well worn rifles and pistols with little value on the open market.
 
The majority of times it will be been someone that was in your house. You had a party. You hired contractors. You blabbed.

The general rule is thieves set out to steal something they have SEEN or have confirmed KNOWLEDGE about.

Don't ever announce what is in a safe, in fact, downplay it.

Plus a safe isn't the end-all. A gun to your head as you step out of your car negates a safe.

For things like PMs, very good hiding places are better.

The other thing you can do to re-enforce the viability of your safe if it is in a basement or garage is boobytrap it with pepper stray or CS gas. If you don't reach in and disable the string/latch, it trips the gas OR attach it to the back of the safe. Someone breaking in usually will pull the safe away from the wall (small safe) to work on it.

Ever since I got my safe, whether it is seen by a neighbor or the UPS guy I always say I don't know why I bothered getting one, nothing but crap in there.

Also, if you don't want to spring for fancy surveillance, get covert inside DVR surveillance cameras for around $75 off FleaBay. They run 24/7 recording any movement. I have one in three different rooms in my house. Always running. You wouldn't see them. You break in, I get home, pull the SD cards and have 720p and audio of who you are, what you said. Superior to the outside cameras where you put a mask on or covered your face.

Thieves INSIDE a home carrying on and chat, use their names, etc - GRAVY.
 
My mom lives in a really nice SW Hillsdale, Portland neighborhood.
Her neighbors had their carpets cleaned the other day and a lot of furniture had to be moved.
One very large mahogany buffet had the family heirloom silver and gold dinnerware set hidden underneath.
The gun safe was in the den filled with cash, jewellery, guns etc.
They had an old perimeter alarm system with no inside motion detectors.
Two days after the carpets were done, the elderly couple went to a fancy restaurant and after dinner they found that their car had two flat tires.
A tow truck was called and had their tires re-inflated (the cores were out). Got home and the silver/gold was gone, the safe was wide open and the point of entry was a window in a small bathroom located next to the kitchen, which was used by one the carpet cleaners, (with no sign of forced entry).
The kitchen had a large calender on the wall, which was marked with the restaurant reservation.
The cops could point fingers at the carpet company employee's, but with no fingerprints or any other witness's they just said sorry, call your insurance company.
 
I think it was either insurance fraud or an inside job. Random thieves who don't know you don't target off of social media. And common burglars would most likely grab whatever's easy and GTFO not bothering the safe.. No he was targeted by professionals who knew him and knew they had a month to work. Someone who knew their security and how to avoid it.

OR

Our hero cut his own safe open removed his valuables, called the police and then filed a claim
BAM! Who just won the daily double?
 
I hope he had the serial numbers of the guns in a separate location so they can go on the stolen gun hot sheet, That the guns are located, the bad guys caught, tried, and imprisoned and the homeowner is made whole again.

Not really that many facts, he could have had a failed or defeated alarm system
 
Years ago a friend told me about his coworker who moved. He had a $100k gun collection and a big safe. He moved it into his new place, all locked in the safe, with a complete list of serial numbers (in the safe), and no insurance. He had to be out of town for a couple days right away, and when he got back, safe and all were gone. Someone had seen him move it in, or it could have been someone he knew.

They say, like Burt said, it's nearly always someone you know; a stranger who's been in your house recently, an acquaintance who knows what you have, a "friend" who needs money, or very often even a relative.

I have a good friend who always has a "guy". He knows a guy who is the world's best mechanic, another who is the world's best electrician, another who is the most honest used car dealer, etc.. Apparently I am his "gun guy". I heard him telling another acquaintance about me, how I knew everything there is to know about guns, have an amazing collection worth a ton of money, etc..

On the one hand I now know to take it with a grain of salt when he tells he about some "world's best" buddy. If I'm the gun guy with a huge collection, that's setting the bar pretty low. On the other hand it made me kind of nervous about my safety. I asked him to not tell people stuff like that about me, but he just laughed and shrugged it off. I'm not so much worried about my stuff being stolen. I have a modest collection and nothing of much value, but I sure don't want someone thinking I do.
 
Try living in a small community, where everybody knows who owns what, and where they keep them. There are a few that have some serious safes, and systems. Some were built after the foundation was laid!! And the house was built around it. And the big ones were built with steel to rival a bank vault.

But how many of us been to a friend, acquaintance or somebody you were doing a deal with, only to see that they blatantly just tossed the items, or $$ into a drawer in front of you?

I bought something from a local, and they tossed the money I gave them into a safe, and the safe wasn't even locked. And I could see guns of high value, and various other stuff in there. They didn't even make an effort to hide the fact of what they had.
 

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