According to the police, criminals use social networks to spy on their victims. Via events that a user has attended, they can find out in which region she lives, or even get her exact place of residence. The photo of the terrace or the facade tells them something about the house. The police therefore advise people to be careful when posting on social media: Send vacation pictures only to individuals or in social networks to closed groups and use the location function in posts only with caution.

And how has the borough weathered this summer? "It's been more than quiet," says Ralf Walbröl, district officer for Hardthöhe and Brüser Berg. He is on the road there a lot and also investigates burglaries. "The vacations are already a classic time for burglaries because many apartments are empty then," says Walbröl, who has just come back from vacation himself.

But he says it's rare for someone to return from vacation, stop in front of the house, only to find that someone has broken in. "Most of the time, the neighbors know how we can contact them," Walbröl says. "That's usually successful, too." But there are cases, he says, when that doesn't work. "Then we back it up as best we can," Walbröl says. It could be, for example, that new locks are used in such cases. The keys can be picked up by the residents at the police station after the vacation. What happens more often: People return from vacation to find that someone tried to break in - but was unsuccessful.

Sometimes special locks on doors and windows already prevent a burglary. "The burglars then find it harder to get in," says Walbröl. "And if it doesn't happen fast enough, the burglars will let it go." To that, police spokesman Michael Beyer adds, "With unsecured windows, professionals are in the house in two seconds."

As a rule, he says, it is money and jewelry that they take. Often, however, there is not only material damage. "Some people are hit hard by such a burglary, the psychological damage is great," says Walbröl. For these people, the police offer support.

Chief Inspector Hans-Jürgen Hoppe works in the area of crime prevention and victim protection. He experiences what a burglary does to those affected. "The reactions range from, ;Then I guess I'll have to clean up now,' to ;We'll sell the house,'" Hoppe says. There are people who are completely thrown off course, he says. Hoppe reports women throwing away all their clothes because they've been ransacked by burglars. "Some people lose their complete sense of security," Hoppe says. That's when it's important to reassure the psyche, he says.

Often, there is also the fear that the burglars will come back, he says. That you don't have to worry about being burgled again is a common misconception, Hoppe says. "There are no studies from Germany, but we know from Benelux and Scandinavia that the probability is relatively high." Therefore, he says, it is important to secure the house or apartment well.

Crime statistics recorded 81 burglaries on Hardtberg last year, six fewer than in 2019. Fewer, too, than the average of the last five years (96 burglaries). If you put the number of burglaries in relation to the number of inhabitants, it shows that there were 2.4 burglaries per 1000 inhabitants in Hardtberg last year. There were more burglaries only in Bad Godesberg with statistically more than four per 1000 inhabitants (Beuel: 1.4 and Bonn: 2.06). Overall, the number of burglaries in the entire Bonn urban area has been declining in recent years. In more than 50 percent of the cases, there is only one attempted burglary.

The Bonn police publish a weekly burglary radar on their website. The radar shows where burglaries have occurred. While recently there was only one attempt within a week, the situation was different last winter: From December 15 to 22, there were two burglaries and two attempts. "During the dark season, burglaries pile up," Beyer says.

To prevent burglaries, police also try to predict the future. Experts from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) use software to calculate where the risk of burglary is particularly high. "We use data on burglaries such as location and time, but also socio-structural data such as purchasing power or number of inhabitants," says Kai Seidensticker from the LKA's Criminological Research Unit.

The Bonn police use the analyses when deciding where to patrol. That's important in times when there are a lot of burglaries and patrols can't be done everywhere, Seidensticker says. "An algorithm is not better than an officer, but it can provide additional info."

(Original text: Dennis Scherer, Translation: Mareike Graepel)