Both of my parents were artists, and so am I, so the house is filled with unique, irreplaceable artwork . . . plus a small fortune in art supplies. Aside from that, I have a Mac Pro that’s only 8 months old, and a MacBook that’s a few years old. Also a few expensive cameras. Plus a cello and two violins.
I have a valuable coin collection, which is in a safe deposit box at my bank.
Electronics, like most people. My camera and lenses, to replace with equal value, would probably run me in the $5,000 range. There’s a 1/4 ounce gold coin and a few silver eagles around here somewhere, leftover from the collection I had and sold. Probably a thousand dollars in woodworking hand tools. A Sig-Sauer Mosquito, worth a few hundred. There are some art pieces worth some few thousands. Not much, really. Most of our assets are in cash instruments.
I have a (fairly inexpensive) laptop and an also fairly inexpensive camera. But what I’d be most worried about is having one of my instruments stolen, especially my rare, special, expensive bass clarinet.
Gee, I hope now that no potential thieves in the Montreal area are reading this thread and finding out my address…
If I was burglarizing my house, what would I take? (I am mentally walking through the rooms) Probably the four flat screen tvs, three lap tops, two ipads, a couple of ipods, three iphones, kindles, nintendo 3ds, DS, xbox, WII, and all those games, two cameras, video camera, 2 blue ray players. Probably wouldn’t bother with the desk top PCs or speakers.
Yeah, I think a thief would make out pretty well even without finding my safe secured to the closet floor or knowing the art on the walls have value although they would have to get through the alarm and three dogs to do so. Still, I wouldn’t shoot them. I’d lock my daughter and I in the bathroom and wait for them to leave. No property is worth hurting someone for. Now if they threatened my kid, that would be a different story all together.
Hmmm, I forgot about the five guitars and amps. They would be gone too I suppose.
I am not really sure what a burglar would consider worth stealing. We have a couple of laptops and three cell phones. (If he wants to steal my elderly desktop PC, that would be nice, as I need a new one, but how many people are that dumb?) A DVD player and a rack of DVDs - I have no idea what those are worth. Old clunker TV, not a flat screen.
We don’t keep money in the house, or prescription drugs. There are guns, credit cards, and a couple of cars (rather elderly ones, but still). My wife has some jewelry that is worth a bit, but she generally wears it.
We have deadbolts and a loud dog, so I suspect we would not be considered much of a target, and those who attempted a B&E would probably be disappointed.
Regards,
Shodan
A lot. We were burglarized several years ago and it hurt badly. If I had been in the house, I would have killed the intruder without a second thought.
But I would have done so even if all we had was crap. It’s the principle of the thing.
The TV’s an old style fat arse one and the laptop and tools aren’t mine, so there’s a few bits and bobs to have away but they’re not mine.
Two laptops and a table, two TVs, and some jewelry would be the main targets. If they were more ambitious there are some high end mountain bikes and ski gear that could fetch some more serious money but would be much more difficult to remove.
Don’t be so sure about that. Most “professional” car thieves (as opposed to joyriders) are chopping the cars for parts. The sorts of people who are going to buy used parts of dubious provenance are the sorts of people who are driving old clunkers so, somewhat counter-intuitively, older cars are often bigger theft targets than flashy new cars. Especially since they’re easier to steal.
Far less than I’d like to admit.
In my mind, my house is filled with desirable, expensive toys. In the mind of a potential burglar, my house is filled with worthless junk.
I look at the 15 year old TV + stereo system, the nearly 10 year old Mac laptop, aaaaand not much else and what I think of is how much it would cost me to replace all that stuff. My entire home theater/music system might run me $2500 including the TV and upgraded DVD to Blu Ray, and extra speakers. What’s on the shelf at home right now is completely worthless to a thief. So to me, all that stuff is “worth stealing” but probably not really so much, and probably really not worth trying to get past my 75-pound bulldog to steal. My car, however, is another matter, but I still think the main deterrent to it being stolen is that it’s a stick shift and I’m guessing your average car thief doesn’t drive a stick. 
Got any DVDs? BluRays?
Anyway, I think you’re looking at it from the wrong perspective. Try thinking, “How would the loss of this affect me?” And, “What would it cost for me to replace this?”
The X residence has less than $50 in cash and valuables after dark. Residents cannot open the time-lock safe.
I have quite a bit. My husband works from home for a worldwide computer/software/services corp, so we have lots of newish electronica for his office. We have our personal laptops. I have my gaming desktop, and my Macbook Air for uni. I have some lovely jewellery, but I keep my crappy cheap jewellery in my jewellery box, so if we’re broken into likely they will just grab that and go. We both have Samsung Galaxy tabs, and matching phones (although that’s likely to be on our persons). We have a new Samsung TV as well, we bought our first TV in a decade when we moved in last year. Couple of cameras. If my son is home, there’s his laptop, phone and iPod as well.
If it were a discerning thief, and not a mere smash and grab for drugs, we have a few nice pieces of art, my grandmother’s silver, my aunt’s china, other things.
We’re well insured, although obviously I’d be devastated to lose my heirlooms, it’s pretty doubtful anyone would take them. We have two large dogs that bark like fools and will bite if not assured the person coming in the door is a friend. We have an alarm for when we’re not here, which is marginally louder than the dogs. (Heh.) We have security bars on the front door and downstairs window. If they want to come in upstairs, they have to scamper over the neighbour’s roof or get a big ladder while the dogs go manic.
Even if I had a gun (not terribly possible here in inner city Australia) I wouldn’t shoot them over any of my stuff. My kid, my husband, yes. Probably my pets. But my stuff? Nah, not worth a human life.
You didn’t read the rest of the OP, did you?
Our house was broken into last fall. The thief ransacked the place every door and drawer was opened.
He got away with $98 from my daughter’s wallet, which was sitting in plain sight on her bureau.
He left behind my wife’s newish laptop, jewelry, including two diamond rings, and lots of other stuff that’s one would think is valuable and easy to carry off.
The police officer who came said most easily identifiable/traceable stuff is being left behind around here. The thieves are just grabbing whatever cash they can find. So the only thing we had worth stealing was a handful of small bills.
When I moved to my BF’s house, my insurance agent said I had to get a renter’s policy. Very strange since she holds the policies on my 2 rental homes, my umbrella policy and my car insurance. She suggested $50K. I laughed my ass off and took the minimun-$10K. Costume jewelry, some precious to me as it is from family, clothing but nothing pricey, a laptop that’s 10 years old.
He on the other hand has a LCD 70" TV, , a good camera, and a bunch of rolled coins. But no, there’s really not much here.