Guidance

A burglary is where a person or persons enters, or remains in a building as a trespasser, with the intent of committing an offence, generally this is theft.

The definition may change in your country of origin, but in general, a burglary is a theft from a building.

A burglary is considered aggravated, when a person is at home, as the risk of harms and conflict increases.

Consider what you are protecting.

Where possible avoid contact with offenders.

The actions you take, and any use of force, are dependent on laws applicable to your jurisdiction.

Create a planned response

Identify the point of entry.

This could include a broken window, marks on a door that has been forced open.

Do not closely approach damaged sections of a building, such as broken glass. Falling debris may cut you.

Avoid touching anything. Police may want to assess the crime scene.

If at night use a torch, carrying it in one hand, at head height, so you can maximize your viewing distance.

Position yourself, so you have good lines of sight and can see any person approaching.

Note any vehicles or transport movement’s in the area.

If you see a vehicle, note the make/model, type, color, number of persons in the vehicle. Note any distinctive features.

Context dependent, create a form up point outside a building, where people can park their vehicles and respond to the event. This avoids contaminating the crime scene and minimizes the risk of injury.

Offender(s) in the building with you

If you are in the building and identify that offenders are present, if safe to do so, consider exiting to a safe location and contact emergency services, police.

Next steps

Call emergency services. They will guide you on next steps.

Provide a description to emergency services on what you are wearing and your location.

Remain on the call until it is safe or emergency services are on scene and advise you to end the call.

Share your location with others

1. Activate Help in Core Lite

You can share your Help alert web browser link with emergency services.

When activating Help, select yourself as a contact to alert.

Check your SMS. View your live location.

Copy the web browser link and send to emergency services.

They will provide you with an SMS number or email to send it to.

Emergency services can view your live location and reduces the risk of armed confrontation.

2. Create a safety plan 

Share it with contacts, so they know where you are. Select in Notify Contacts the Check in/out option so contacts are sent a copy of your safety plan.