Fifteen percent of all robberies in the Kingdom now involve thieves breaking and entering homes and stealing the families' belongings, according to statistics of the Center of Research and Studies at Prince Naif Security University in Riyadh. The situation has become so bad that police in some parts of the country have increased their patrols of residential areas. Col. Fahd Al-Ghanam, spokesman of Madina Police, said: “We have intensified precautionary measures to curtail home robberies and we have increased secret and regular patrols by 40 to 50 percent.” He called upon citizens and expatriates to take good care of their belongings. Thieves break into houses when families go on vacation during school breaks or holidays. The families end up losing their belongings which include money, jewels, gold, and computers and sometimes photos and video clips of female members of the family dressed up for weddings or other events. Thieves steal these photos and upload them on the Internet. Asharq Arabic daily met some experts who attributed the cause of the increasing rate of household robbery to naivety, lack of security sense, negligence, and trusting housemaids or drivers. A survey carried out by Asharq on a random sample of the public showed that 97 percent of homes do not have a security alarm system while 99 percent of those surveyed said that they knew it was important to have one. Layla Alawazim, a citizen, was shocked when she returned from her vacation and discovered that her home had been broken into and her laptop, electronic devices and furniture worth SR70,000 had been stolen. “Even my gold which my mother hid at the bottom of a wooden barrel was stolen. Our nice vacation turned into a nightmare. My research documents for my master's degree were also taken. Our laptops which had our priceless family pictures were gone.” Mona A. said her neighbor's daughter was almost raped when two thieves broke into the house at 11 P.M. and the girl was at home alone. Mona was sitting with her brother and husband when she heard a shriek from her neighbor's house. They went to check and were shocked when they saw two thieves holding the neighbor's daughter trying to undress her and rape her. “The two men ran away once they saw us and we were unable to catch them.” Mona said the neighbors did not report the robbery and attempted rape to the police for fear of damaging their daughter's reputation. Shams said her apartment was broken into and robbed three times. The first time, she was sleeping in the morning when she heard someone break her window. There were two thieves dressed in black with their faces covered. They did not see Shams who hid under the bed. They stole SR5,000 in cash and gold worth SR7,000. Abu Muhammad Sadiq said that thieves use different ways to check if the residents of a house are in town or away. They turn the trash can upside down and put it in front of the door and come back the next day to check if it is still in the same position or not. Some of them ring the bell for a long time to see if someone will answer. Jawad Ismail, the owner of a security alarm system shop, said the first thing families should do before spending large amounts of money on valuable electronic equipment is to install security alarm systems in their houses. “If your house is not secure, you might end up losing everything.” The price of alarm systems ranges from SR4,000 to SR25,000 based on the area of the house, Ismail said, adding that it is better to install the system while the house is under construction because it is easier in terms of installation and wiring. “Some systems allow you to link your cell phones to monitoring cameras so that you can keep an eye on your house from any place in the world.” Col. Mesfer Al-Juaid, spokesman of Jeddah Police, said that most home robberies are done by persons who know the home owner such as housemaids, drivers and doormen. “People should not leave their money or gold in a house or car. It's their responsibility to keep their valuable belongings in safe places,” he said. Col. Ziyad Al-Ruqaiti, spokesman of Eastern Province Police, said: “We assign police patrols to areas which have higher rates of home robberies and keep a close eye on them. It is difficult to stop thieves from breaking into homes. Police and members of the community should cooperate to curb robbery by holding seminars to educate the public about the best way to protect their houses.” He called upon people to install security alarm systems in their houses and apartments to deter burglars and to monitor their homes when they are not there. Thieves will avoid a house which has a security alarm system because they know if they break into it, the system will go off.
