Acknowledgments
Like any other book, A Burglar’s Guide to the City was not written in isolation. Crucially, it could never have been written without a core group of people whose insights and willingness to speak—often at great length—about the architecture of crime kept everything from coming apart. Those people include retired FBI special agent William J. Rehder, LAPD tactical flight officer Cole Burdette, Karl Alizade of CitySafe, Sergeant Katherine Scheimreif of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Jes Stewart of the Nevada Museum of Art, Darrell Clifton, Jerry Toner (and Mary Beard, for introducing us), Chief Inspector Dave Stopford of the South Yorkshire Police, “Jack Dakswin,” Joe Loya, Janice Kerbel, Tamara Denning, Schuyler Towne, Eric Michaud, Deviant Ollam, Victoria Dengel, Jason England, Bernard Tschumi, Christopher Hawthorne, Andy Schatz, Randy Smith, Lana Corbi, and Tom Gaffney. Thanks again.
The Los Angeles Police Department deserves particular commendation for being uniquely accessible and open to my queries throughout my research. In particular, I am indebted to Tactical Flight Officers Cole Burdette and Mark Burdine; Detective Chris Casey, Commercial Crimes Division; Lieutenant Rob Edgar, who at the time of our meeting was head of the LAPD’s Burglary Special Section; and Detectives Don Hrycyk and John Clark. Based on my experience, the LAPD exhibited an openness and approachability that other police departments in the United States would be wise to emulate.
At the FBI, retired special agent William J. Rehder was notably generous with his time, insights, and willingness to discuss so many of the old cases detailed in his book, Where the Money Is. Retired FBI special agent Thomas McShane and Special Agent Brenda Cotton in New York City also spared time to speak at an event I organized at Columbia University in April 2012 about the architecture of burglary, bank crime, and museum heists.
In Chicago, I owe special thanks to Sergeant Jack Benigno of the Chicago Police Department, and to Patrick Thomas of the Chicago chapter of TOOOL.
In San Francisco, I had a useful and good-humored rooftop conversation with Robert Nagle of The San Francisco Examiner about crime in the Bay Area, and with Eric Michaud about the nature of lock-picking, technical innovation, and security research.
In England, I owe thanks to Chief Inspector David Stopford of the South Yorkshire Police; Mark Saunders, Surrey Police crime prevention design adviser in the Woking Borough; and my own in-laws, Steve and Valerie Twilley, whose unfortunate first-person experience with suburban burglary while I was working on the book nonetheless did not affect their encouragement for my writing it.
I also benefit from having incredibly interesting and supportive friends and colleagues. Architect and fellow true-crime enthusiast Jimmy Stamp was integral in helping develop some of the early ideas that formed this book; game designer Jim Rossignol served as an ideal matchmaker for putting me in touch with exactly the right people at the right time in the gaming world; art historian Michael Lewis from Williams College gave me a fascinating introduction to the role of fortification in early modern American domestic architecture; architect Minsuk Cho set up—and translated—a great conversation with Korean film director Choi Donghun about heists, capers, and crime that unfortunately did not make it into this book; and Christopher Hawthorne, Scott Macauley, Matt Jones, Ilona Gaynor, and Jason Grote all offered input during various phases of the book. Sean McDonald at FSG gave Burglar’s Guide its ultimate coherence and form.
Finally, trying to impress my wife, Nicola Twilley, remains my life’s central motivation; her generosity while I worked on this project, in time, support, editorial feedback, and so much more, was unparalleled. This book is for her.
About the Author
Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG, one of the most acclaimed architecture sites on the Web. You can sign up for email updates here.