Drumming: Basic Burglary Techniques PDF
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Mary McIntosh
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Summary
This document describes a type of burglary referred to as "drumming." The text outlines the methods used and details the activities of the burglars, including a description of their routines and focus on minimizing risk. The document is part of a larger study on changes in the organization of thieving.
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6. Drumming Drumming is what you might call basic burglary*. You pick a dead gaff – a house you know or think is empty – sound the drum by knocking at the front door to make sure, stroll round the back, get in through a window and turn the place over. The average suburban house is a pushover t...
6. Drumming Drumming is what you might call basic burglary*. You pick a dead gaff – a house you know or think is empty – sound the drum by knocking at the front door to make sure, stroll round the back, get in through a window and turn the place over. The average suburban house is a pushover to enter. You don't need to carry any tools.... Joe worked to an unvarying schedule. Once inside, he bolted all doors, leaving one ground-floor window open, thus, like a wise general, securing his retreat. It seldom took him more than five minutes to go through the house, He took only easily portable stuff, jewelry, ornaments, cash, if there was any; he seldom bothered with clothes unless there was an exceptionally good fur coat. He would leave by the front door, taking his time and emerging hat in hand, still carrying on an imaginary conversation, for the benefit of passers-by. Little details that the average drummer never bothered about were very important to him. Never wear your hat while moving about in a strange house... For the most part my job was to sit in the front room and keep my eyes glued to the gate while Joe turned over upstairs. This gave us an extra few seconds in which to take stoppo if the householder did come back while we were still on the premises. Joe used to maintain that there was no reason why a two-handed team of drummers should ever get nicked. He may have been right at that. He and I grafted together for the best part of four years and though we had some narrow squeaks we never got pinched. A lot of the time we were drumming three times a week, changing our manor each time, averaging between thirty and fifty pounds a week. *Burglary: stealing things from houses From 'Changes in the Organisation of Thieving' by Mary McIntosh
