After a Break-In: Securing Your Home Step by Step

First: People, Police, Paper

1. Don't go in alone if you've just discovered it. If there's any chance someone is still inside, wait for police outside. Nothing in the house outranks you.
2. Report it before touching anything. A police report number is the key that opens every later door: insurance, landlord obligations, even some victim-assistance resources. Non-emergency line if it's clearly over; 911 if it isn't.
3. Photograph everything as-found. The pried door, the tool marks, the splintered frame, the mess: wide shots and closeups, before cleanup. Your future insurance claim is built from these.
4. List what's missing, especially keys. A stolen laptop is a loss; a stolen key ring with your address on anything nearby is an ongoing threat, and it changes tonight's locksmith scope from "repair" to "repair plus rekey everything."

Tonight: Make the House Close and Lock

The goal for day one is simple: every entry closes, latches, and locks. That usually means repairing or replacing the damaged hardware ($60–$180 per lock, published) and, whenever key control is in question, rekeying the untouched doors ($85–$225 for a visit covering 1–4 locks) so any taken or floating keys die immediately. Securing a splintered frame well enough for the night is part of the job; pretending a wrecked frame is fine isn't.

This Week: Reinforce What Actually Failed

Most forced entries defeat the door system, not the lock cylinder: the strike plate's short screws rip out of the jamb long before a decent deadbolt gives up. Which is why the highest-value fixes are unglamorous:

• Reinforced strike plates with long screws into the framing: the single best dollars-to-security ratio in residential work, and standard practice in our deadbolt installations ($80–$200 published).
• A real deadbolt on every entry door with a full one-inch throw. Knob latches alone are a formality.
• Slider and window attention: track screws or bars for sliding doors, locks or pin stops on accessible windows.
• High-security cylinders where they earn it: if picking, bumping, or unauthorized key copies are realistic concerns (shared buildings, past key theft), a $120–$310 upgrade on the main entry closes that class of attack. On a quiet cul-de-sac door that was kicked, the strike plate mattered more.
• Light and sightlines: free-to-cheap and genuinely effective. Burglars audition houses by how unobserved the entry feels.

For Renters

Your landlord owes you a unit that locks: repairing break-in damage to doors and locks falls on their side of California's habitability line, and doing it promptly is in everyone's interest. Coordinate rekeying with them (most leases require consent for lock changes), keep your own copies of the report and photos, and read the California rental lock rules guide for the specifics, including the special provisions for domestic-violence situations, where the law gives tenants a fast, protected path.

Frequently Asked Questions