The Strange Expertise of Burglars
Nee began her research in prisons, where she carefully quizzed offenders about their misdeeds. She would gently probe their memories with interviews and questionnaires, as well as showing them photos and plans of houses and streets to try to trigger recall of their strategies. You might think the convicted burglars would be suspicious, or hostile, to someone trying to plumb their secrets. In fact, they are more than happy to open up. “A lot of the time they are incredibly bored. So what you overwhelmingly find is that they are really pleased that someone is interested in what they do,” she says.
Even so, her team have had a few surprises. As part of her recent experiments, she invited a group of students and convicted burglars to a police safe house to see how they would try and enter the premises. The back door had been unlocked, but engineers filming the incidents were shocked to find a couple of the burglars climbing in through a window above their heads. And later on, Nee had forgotten that she had left her briefcase downstairs. “I’ve now got this video of a burglar going through my briefcase and finding all my money – it’s really freaky,” she says.
Nee might have known that they would instantly home in on the cash. Throughout her experiments, she has shown that most burglars are operating on a skilled “automatic pilot” that allows them to quickly exploit an opportunity.
It begins long before the day of the crime. When he (or she) starts to need money, the burglar will begin noting potential targets during their day-to-day activities – walking the dog, say. They are surprisingly flexible, however, and may quickly change their mind on the day, if they see another house that is easier to access – thanks to an open window or door, or if the owners are away.
Once inside, the automatic pilot proves to be essential to stop the criminal losing their head, as I find out myself in my own botched burglary. The safe house is now being used for its original purpose, so I am instead taking part in a virtual reality simulation, which Nee has also used to ask convicted burglars to demonstrate the course of a crime. Despite the artificial set-up, she has found that they tend to take it seriously, and show much the same behaviour as they did in the real-life house.
I had, however, been sceptical of Nee’s claims that much skill is required. “How hard can it be?” I asked myself as I entered the virtual house. But although I know to focus on the small, portable, high-value items – somehow my eyes glide right over them. My mind is racing, but I can’t find anything – and so I go for the big, cumbersome items instead. Rather than being a smooth criminal, I am like a hyperactive kid on an Easter egg hunt. (If you don’t believe me, I would suggest you take a look at the video below, to see how many items you would have spotted during this staged crime.)
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