confessions of a North Dallas burglar…

The Canyon Creek home selected for Jerry’s demonstration is in the $60,000 class. The owner gave his permission and stood by, watching, admittedly somewhat apprehensive about the possibility of Jerry coming back on his own.

Tricks of his former trade, revealed as he ransacks the home, leave you feeling naked. There is no home, and probably few businesses that Jerry couldn’t get into with a few simple tools.

Jerry doesn’t just select his target at random. He doesn’t have to. Newspaper obituary columns and the society pages are loaded with tips.

“The obituaries usually list everybody in the immediate family. You check the name and get the address and phone number. Maybe it says ’body forwarded to Kansas City for burial’ and you know a lot of those people are going to be gone out of Dallas on that date. But even a local service and burial offers plenty of opportunity.

“You check the map and go out and look at the house and see what kind of neighborhood it’s in. You check the alleys and streets and learn where they all go.

“The society pages always give you a lot of useful information, too. Say the Hunts or the Murchisons are giving a barbecue, and the list tells who is the chairman and the president and the guest of honor, an’ all of that.

“Well, you know you’re not going to go where the party is, but you’ve got that list of some of the people who are going to be there. You check them out. You find out who has addresses like 4901 or 5902-corner houses -most likely the most expensive one in the neighborhood. The corner lot is where most big fancy houses are built.”

Once he has a house selected, Jerry gets the phone number and calls before he begins his foray.

“I call and let it ring three … four times. When I get to the area, I go to a 7-Eleven and call again.” If there is no answer, Jerry is ready to “make” a house.

Before starting out, even before the phone calls, Jerry prepares. He puts phony – usually stolen – license plates on his car. Then he shaves and puts on neat, but unobtrusive clothing and even shines his shoes. Like a businessman going to the office.

“You don’t want to look like a hippie or a tramp. You want to look decent. Dress neat as possible and real clean-cut -maybe even a suit and tie.”

For most burglaries Jerry uses only a few tools, all pocket-sized. Gloves are a necessity. (“You get liners at the army-navy store, the fine nylon kind you can ball up and hide in one hand.”)

He wipes clean two screwdrivers, the batteries and case of a penlight flashlight. If he has to, he will dump them, and there won’t be any fingerprints to trace.

Then he begins to move. After the calls, he drives through the neighborhood for another look at the house. If all is quiet, Jerry drives a few blocks away and parks the car.

“You make sure the car is far enough away, yet not conspicuous. If you can, you park in front of a house with a ’FOR SALE’ sign in the yard. Nobody’s going to question a car like that. Then you get out and walk.”

The approach to a house is the time when most burglars are noticed. Jerry walks confidently, like he is looking for someone, or maybe going to the house on purpose. He may check the mailbox to see if the mail has been picked up, or if there are any newspapers scattered on the porch (the best tip that a house is empty of people).

“You walk right up and knock on the door. You can always blow it off if someone opens the door. Tell them you’re looking for the contractor who built the house. Anything like that.”

The best way to go into a house is behind a big fence, protection for Jerry in daylight or darkness, even if there are floodlights. Most gates to these fences are unlocked, Jerry says, and right there is where most homeowners make their first mistake.

“A lot of them have dogs. Most of the time you can talk to the dog, even though it may be a vicious-looking thing. You talk to them and play with them. Don’t show you’re scared of them. Once you get in the house you coax the dog inside, too. When you leave you let the dog out and lock up.”

So much for the theory of watch dogs.

Getting inside the house is the simplest part of the job. Most houses have latch-type locks that are spring loaded.

“I don’t ever leave a mark on a door. I use a screwdriver to open up the lock or maybe a piece of flexible plastic. You take one screwdriver and push it in so that you can see down inside. Then you take the second screwdriver or the plastic and push it in and flip that latch and the door unlocks. They won’t know how you did it.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety probably won’t like it, but drivers licenses are the best thing for popping back door latches. Ditto for credit cards.

Most houses built in this part of the country have sliding glass doors. Jerry looks on such doors as good friends.

“With a sliding glass door you take a screwdriver and stick it in at the bottom and flip it back and forth (rocking the door). The door latch will unlock itself. Or there might be a round piece of metal or hard rubber on the door right where the lock is. You take a screwdriver, move the round piece aside and flip the rod out of the track. Bang. You’re in.”

The house selected for Jerry’s demonstration sits back off the street about 50 feet, and the garage is in front, shielding the front door. However, Jerry pointed out that he would probably park on the next street over and come up a tree line that separates the house from an open strip of land. There is also a creek behind the house that would give good cover.

The first thing Jerry pointed out was the strong front door with an English-style dead bolt lock. Trouble.

“That’s the kind of lock you should have on your doors. You turn the key and the dead bolt pops in. You’d just about have to pry that door apart and that would make noise. Somebody would know a burglary was going on.”

But at the back of the house Jerry found his kind of door. It was a French-style double door, secured by a latch-type lock. Jerry pulled out his screwdriver.

The angle of the house shielded him from houses on either side, and the house directly behind was partially hidden by a large tree. Perfect cover.

“Now, you pull back this paneling here,” he said, sliding the screwdriver in.

The wood strip bent back and the latch inside was clearly visible.

“Then you push this screwdriver straight in and push back the lock.” Ten seconds of effort and the door opened without a sound.

Now safely inside, Jerry moved into a practiced routine calculated to guard him against any surprises.

“First thing you look for is to see how the people live. You go to the front door and if the latch across the front is on, then you know they come in the back door out of habit. You lock the back door and unlock the front door. Then maybe you open a window over on the side and unhook the screen to leave you another way out. After you’ve done that you make sure nobody’s there.”

Jerry said he has yet to find anyone at home when he goes into a house.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody and I don’t want anybody to hurt me. If someone is there, I’d try my best to get out of there. If I could see them before they see me, I’d take off running. The majority of people would be just as scared as you are.

“The first place I’d go is the master bedroom. There may be a safe in the closet, or behind a picture. Maybe there’s a footlocker full of coin collections. And you’re liable to find diamond rings, necklaces and watches on night stands or dressing tables.”

Most of Jerry’s burglaries have been set-ups -arranged by someone. When he goes into the house, he knows what he is after. He knows where it is located, and he can be in and out in five minutes. He gets a percentage of the cut.

“Now you take doctors or lawyers or builders. They’re always looking for ways to beat income taxes so they sometimes take cash and don’t report it. They just keep it at home in a drawer or a big jug. I’ve been set up on things like that by crooked lawyers in Dallas. The lawyer would take the victim out to dinner while I burglarized the house. I got into a lot of stuff like that.”

Jerry walked straight to the master bedroom, located down a long hallway. He looked around quickly, checking under the bed and in the closet. No safe. No jewelry trays.

Jerry shuffled through some jewelry boxes on a bureau and found an Omega watch worth $90, a one-dollar gold piece worth about $50 and a Hamilton railroad watch worth about $80.

“I’d take all that stuff,” he said. He then moved into the living room. There were a lot of silver pieces around -a full tea set, silver goblets and silverware.

“I’d get me a pillowcase and put all that stuff into it. Then I’d put it by the door and then go look around a little more.”

Even though he was pausing to explain and occasionally giving a careful demonstration, Jerry was in and out of the Canyon Creek house in just under 30 minutes. Had his mission actually been burglary, he would have left with about $5,000 worth of silver and the small quantity of jewelry.

“A lot of burglars let temptation get them busted. They want to get all the stuff they see. But if he’s a pro who has some sense, he won’t mess with merchandise (televisions, radios, guns, appliances, stereos, etc.). A good burglar, once he sees a lot of money or diamonds – stuff he can put into his pocket -he just leaves everything else untouched. He can turn around and leave and be gone in five minutes and he’s done everything he needs to do.

“Maybe you find a whole tremendous amount of money. You can walk down the street with a whole pocket-full of $1,000 bills. Maybe you find a big coin collection. You look around, find a suitcase, put the stuff into it and walk up the street with the luggage like you’re going on a trip. You get into the car and drive off.”

Burglar alarms hold no fear for Jerry.

“It takes the police time to get there and by that time it’s too late. I’ve seen times when it takes the police five or ten minutes. It takes you maybe one or two minutes and then you’re in your car and gone before the police even get there.”

Once Jerry is clear of the burglary he usually goes straight to a phone and calls his fence -a buyer of stolen merchandise.

“Usually I already have it sold before I make a place, especially if it’s a set-up. I explain what I got to the fence. A lot of them are lawyers and builders, guys who own their own businesses, you know, restaurants, motels, jewelry stores. I know on jeweler who gives a pretty good price, especially on big stones. He’d buy from you in a minute.”

The $5,000 worth of silver that he might have taken from the house in Canyon Creek would have netted him about $1,000, Jerry estimated.

“You check the papers and see where they’re buying silver. Anything that is made (coins) before 1964 is pure silver and you know somebody will give you 300 percent over face value. They (silver buyers) don’t hardly ever ask you a thing. You just tell them you’re scared somebody’s going to break into your house and you want to sell your coin collection. That’s the way they do it.”

During his life, Jerry has been married and divorced three times. He has gone to the state penitentiary at Huntsville three times. He has escaped from two reformatories and once kept on going after prison officials gave him a leave to attend his mother’s funeral.

While Jerry has spent all his adult life in crime, he would like to reform. And, he has a philosophical outlook about what he has done and what life should be, that is somewhat surprising.

“I always ended up getting off with the wrong bunch. Maybe some ex-convict or somebody I knew who knew I was a burglar and could open safes.”

Does he ever feel like going back to burglarizing?

“Oh yeah, I felt like that lots. It’s just the knowledge that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life locked up. I can make more money in the long run working an honest job than I can make in a couple of short years stealing and then having to spend the rest of them locked up.”

Is prison a deterrent?

“Not really. It’s not a good deterrent against crime. A lot of people sent to prison turn to the life of crime because of associations with professional criminals. Really, they weren’t criminals to start off with. They got off on the wrong foot.”

What about the young kids who are getting a good start in crime through burglary and then move on to more violent crime?

“People nowdays rob somebody and turn around and kill them. That’s silly. I guess they do it to keep from being recognized. Every day you read where some poor old dude running a service station or drive-in grocery is robbed and after they get all his money they turn around and shoot him for nothing.

“People like that need to be shotdown like a dog. They do not need tobe in society.”

Let’s face it, it is virtually impossible to prevent a burglar from breaking into your home if he really wants to. However, many homeowners make it incredibly easy for burglars. Like leaving garage doors open and back doors unlocked. And allowing mail and newspapers to pile up while they are on vacation.

These are the kinds of little clues that burglars look for when sizing up a house. A good first step to safeguarding your home is to be careful about locking all doors and leaving lights on when you leave and stopping mail and newspaper delivery when you go on vacation.

No home can be made completely burglar-proof. The smash-and-grab type intruder will simply kick the door down or break a window to get in. The pros are more genteel. They enter and leave without leaving a mark.

LOCKS

Houses should have strong dead bolt locks on every door. The best type is the English-style dead bolt lock, which is key operated. The police are currently trying to make such locks a building code requirement for all new homes and apartments. Most locksmiths can install a dead bolt in 30 minutes to an hour. A single cell lock, which has a keyhole on the outside and a knob on the inside, costs from $20 to $22. A double cell lock, which has keyholes on both sides, will cost about $25.



BURGLAR ALARMS

Alarms are fine, though you should remember that a savvy burglar can circumvent them fairly easily. Even the clumsiest burglar can break in, grab a few things and be gone before the police arrive.

The best kind of alarm is probably the audio type, which can be tripped by almost any sound. The drawback is that your pet parakeet can set the thing off. Rollins Protective Services Co. offers a $900 package that includes radio frequency detectors strategically placed around your home, a pressure plate “carpet trap,” or a photoelectronic light beam, which is hidden somewhere in your home. Rollins also charges a service fee for maintaining the system, an extra many burglar alarm companies don’t offer.

RENT-A-COP

Patrolling private security guards can inhibit a burglar on the make. Most such companies have a fleet of cars with two-way radios and a central dispatcher. The cars look official and give something of a “police presence” to a neighborhood.

In the North Dallas area, one of the better companies is the Neighborhood Co-op Patrol. They charge $12 per month for single-family dwellings, and usually work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. They will also cover apartment houses and have a guard division that will man stationary security posts.

If you decide that all these preventatives are not enough, you can always fall back on the old reliables -the police. They will send someone out from their community services division to talk to large groups of homeowners about security.

All of these preventative measures will not stymie the persistent burglar but they will present a solid psychological challenge. If a home is properly locked, equipped with plenty of outside lighting, checked by guards, it lengthens a burglar’s loiter time. This alone might force him to move on.