“The Burglar in the Suitcase” by Kristyn K. Wilson and Chris Achong appeared in Mathematics Teacher 106, no. 4 (November 2012).
The section of this chapter exploring what burglars look for in the houses they target relies on a core group of books and interviews. Burglary by R. I. Mawby (Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2001), Breaking and Entering: Burglars on Burglary by Paul Cromwell and James N. Olson (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004), and Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Breakins by Richard T. Wright and Scott Decker (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994) were especially useful. A research paper called “Defensible Space: Deterring Crime and Building Community” by Henry G. Cisneros (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1995), as well as Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design by Oscar Newman (New York: Collier Books, 1972), were also good reference points. Mark Saunders, crime prevention design adviser with the Surrey Police (U.K.), helped walk me through many of these concepts (author interview, July 2013). Multiple conversations with LAPD detective third grade Chris Casey, recorded from 2013 to 2015, were both fascinating and helpful; I only wish I’d had more space for his stories in this book.
In the U.K., Detective Chief Inspector Dave Stopford of the South Yorkshire Police spoke with me at length about Yorkshire’s capture-house program. For media coverage of capture houses, see “‘Capture Houses’ Trap Burglars” (Yorkshire Evening Post, December 2007), “Police ‘Capture Houses’ Setting CCTV Traps for Leeds Burglars” (Yorkshire Evening Post, April 2008), “Capture Houses” (BBC, March 2008), “Police Set Up High-Tech ‘Capture House’ Filled with Valuables to Catch Teenage Burglars” (Harriet Arkell, Daily Mail, March 2013), and “Police Set Up Burglar Traps Disguised as Houses in Dudley” (Birmingham Mail, June 2012), to name but a few.
The Chinese burglary study mentioned in this chapter is called “Assessing Temporal and Weather Influences on Property Crime in Beijing, China” by Chen Peng, Shu Xueming, Yuan Hongyong, and Li Dengsheng, published in Crime, Law and Social Change 55, no. 1 (February 2011).
Harry Houdini’s book The Right Way to Do Wrong, originally published in 1906, was reissued by Brooklyn’s Melville House in 2012.
For more on PleaseRobMe, see “Please Rob Me: A Foursquare/Twitter Crime-Spree in the Making” (Martin Bryant, Next Web, February 2010). PleaseRobMe is still online at pleaserobme.com.
The use of social media by burglars for choosing their targets will only increase. For now, see “Sheriff: Alleged Burglar Admits to Using Facebook to Pick Her Targets” (Kara Mattingly, 14News, September 2013), “Hunterdon County ‘Facebook Burglar’ Who Paddled Kayak to Canada Found Guilty of Jumping Bail” (Mike Deak, Daily Record, March 2014), “Overland Park Burglary Victim Thinks Thieves Used GPS” (Tony Rizzo and Robert A. Cronkleton, Kansas City Star, April 2013), and “Dating App Used to Snare Heist Victims” (Kara Coleman, Daily Herald, August 2014). To the best of my knowledge, the case described by Kara Coleman was still pending as this book went to press.
Other stories in this chapter include “Bold Burglar Takes a Shower, Steals a Quad” (Z107.7 News, February 2014), “Police: Easton Intruder Helps Self to Fried Chicken and Beer” (Pamela Lehman, Morning Call, January 2010), “Wireless Meters Tell Snoopers When You Are Not Home” (Jim Giles, New Scientist, October 2012), my own article for New Scientist, “The Ghosts That Keep Your House Safe” (February 2015), “The Emptons: Estates Forsaken as Hamptonites Flee for European Shores” (Richard Kirshenbaum, Observer, July 2013), and “Bradbury—a Quiet, Private Haven for the Horsey Set” (Sue Avery, Los Angeles Times, March 1988).
I spoke with Jerry Toner in August 2013 on the advice of a mutual colleague, Professor Mary Beard at the University of Cambridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge “love picking” event took place on Saturday, September 7, 2013. TOOOL’s list of state lock-picking laws can be found on their website, toool.us. New York City Administrative Code 20-301 is available online; it is part of New York City Administrative Code, Title 20: Consumer Affairs, Chapter 2: Licenses, Subchapter 15: Locksmiths.
The John M. Mossman Lock Collection can be found online at generalsociety.org and, in the real world, at 20 West Forty-Fourth Street in Manhattan. The Lure of the Lock by Albert A. Hopkins was first published in 1928 and is available for purchase at the General Society. Schuyler Towne maintains a website at schuylertowne.com, where he describes himself as a “security anthropologist.” On June 4, 2015, @DavidJBianco tweeted that Towne “is a machine for turning locks into anthropology.” Towne and I visited the Mossman Lock Collection in September 2013.
Pumping Station: One (PS:One) is located at 3519 N. Elston Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The scene described here took place on June 5, 2013. John “Jack” Benigno is a sergeant with the Chicago Police Department, but spoke to me in an unofficial capacity, as a civilian locksport enthusiast. We spoke in person at the event at PS:One, but much more extensively over Skype and e-mail. Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1995, translated by Alan Sheridan) has become a classic in the field of security studies.
The story of the Antwerp diamond heist is told in the book Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell (New York: Sterling, 2010). A version of the Antwerp diamond heist was more famously published in Wired under the title “The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist” (Joshua Davis, April 2009). It’s worth noting, however, that Selby and Campbell convincingly explain that the narrative presented by the Wired story is incorrect at best—or worse, that Wired was duped by Antwerp diamond thief Leonardo Notarbartolo.
Phil Christopher’s story is told in Superthief: A Master Burglar, the Mafia, and the Biggest Bank Heist in U.S. History by Rick Porrello (Novelty, OH: Next Hat Press, 2006). Although I do not refer to it in this book, The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief by Myles J. Connor Jr. with Jenny Siler (New York: Harper, 2009) is also an interesting and relevant read.