If your home has just been broken into, what to do after a burglary comes down to three immediate moves: get yourself and anyone else out of the house, call the police from a safe spot, and leave everything inside untouched until officers arrive. The order matters. Walking in on an intruder is one of the most dangerous situations a homeowner can face, and cleaning up before police document the scene can destroy fingerprints and cost you an insurance payout later.
Get to Safety and Call the Police
A kicked-in door, a broken window, or anything that looks wrong when you pull up is a signal to stay out. The burglar could still be inside. Back away to a neighbor’s house or your car and call 911. If you were already in the home when the break-in started, leave as quickly and quietly as you can and call from somewhere else. Don’t confront anyone. Let officers clear the property before you step back in.
Call 911 for any burglary in progress or any situation where you feel threatened. If you’ve come home hours or days later and there’s no sign of danger, the non-emergency police line works too, though 911 is always fine if you’re unsure. Give dispatch your address, describe what you see — forced entry, missing items, open doors — and mention whether anyone might still be inside.
Officers will walk through the property and generate a police report with a case number. Hold onto that number. Your insurer will require it to open a claim, and you’ll reference it if stolen property surfaces later or an arrest is made. Ask the responding officer how and when you can request the full written report. In many places it isn’t available for a few days to a couple of weeks, and some departments charge a small copy fee. You don’t have to wait for the full report to start your claim — the case number alone is enough.
Document Everything Before You Clean Up
Once police have cleared the home and before you start putting things back, walk through each room with your phone and photograph or video anything that’s been disturbed. Entry points, broken locks, ransacked drawers, scattered belongings. Those images work as both investigative evidence and proof of loss for the insurance company.
Then build a list of what’s gone or damaged. For each item, write down:
- Description: brand, model, color, size, distinguishing features
- Serial numbers, if you can find them on old boxes, manuals, or registration emails
- Approximate value — what you paid and roughly what replacement would cost today
- Proof of purchase: receipts, credit card statements, online order confirmations, warranty paperwork
Missing receipts aren’t fatal. Bank and card statements often capture the purchase, Amazon and other retailers keep order histories going back years, and appraisals cover jewelry and art. Insurers are used to working with imperfect records. Share the finished inventory with the investigating officer so it can be added to the police report, and keep a copy for your claim.
Secure the Property, but Don’t Repair It Yet
This is the step people skip, and it costs them. Most homeowners and renters policies carry a duty-to-mitigate clause: after a covered loss, you’re required to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. If a shattered window stays open for a week and rain ruins the floors underneath, the insurer can refuse to pay for the floors.
Reasonable steps mean boarding up broken windows and doors with plywood, calling a locksmith to rekey or replace compromised locks, and covering openings with tarps. These are temporary fixes. Do not make permanent repairs before the insurance adjuster has inspected the property. The adjuster has the right to see the damage in its original state, and jumping ahead can give the insurer grounds to reduce your payout.
Save every receipt from emergency repairs, materials, and the locksmith. Take photos of the damage and the temporary fix. These costs are generally reimbursable under your policy as long as they’re documented and reasonable.
File the Insurance Claim
Call your homeowners or renters insurer as soon as you have the case number and a preliminary inventory. Most carriers run 24-hour claims lines, and prompt reporting matters. Have your policy number ready (it’s on the declarations page or your insurance card), along with the case number, your photos, the stolen-property list, and any purchase documentation. An adjuster will usually be assigned to inspect the property and verify the losses. Being organized before the visit keeps things moving.
Your Deductible Comes Off the Top
The payout is reduced by your deductible. If your deductible is $1,000 and your documented losses come to $1,200, you’ll see $200. For losses that barely clear the deductible, think about whether filing is worth it, since a claim on your record can push premiums up at renewal. For significant losses, filing is almost always the right call.
Replacement Cost vs. Actual Cash Value
How much you actually receive depends on which type of coverage you carry. Replacement cost pays what it would take to buy the same item new today. Actual cash value takes that figure and subtracts depreciation for age and wear, which on a five-year-old laptop can cut your payout roughly in half. If you don’t know which you have, check your declarations page or ask your agent before the adjuster arrives.
Watch for Category Sub-Limits
Standard policies cap payouts on certain categories no matter what the items are actually worth. Jewelry, watches, and furs commonly have a theft sub-limit around $1,500. Firearms and silverware often cap around $2,500. Electronics may be limited to around $1,000. If the burglar took a $7,000 engagement ring and your jewelry sub-limit is $1,500, $1,500 is the ceiling. The fix for that gap — a scheduled personal property endorsement, sometimes called a floater — has to be in place before the loss. Afterward, knowing the sub-limits at least tells you what to expect.
Lock Down Your Identity and Devices
If credit cards, checkbooks, a wallet, a passport, Social Security cards, or anything else carrying personal or financial information is gone, identity theft becomes an immediate risk. Move quickly.
Cancel Cards and Watch Your Accounts
Call every bank and card issuer tied to anything stolen. Cancel the compromised cards, request replacements, and ask each institution to flag the account for suspicious activity. Then review recent transactions across all your accounts. Burglars who grab financial documents sometimes use them within hours.
Fraud Alert or Credit Freeze
A fraud alert is free, lasts one year, and tells creditors to take extra steps to verify your identity before opening new accounts. You only need to contact one of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion — and that bureau is required to notify the other two.1USAGov. How to Place or Lift a Security Freeze on Your Credit Report
A credit freeze goes further by blocking access to your credit report entirely, which stops anyone from opening new accounts in your name. Freezes are free at all three bureaus under federal law, and you can lift them temporarily when you need to apply for credit yourself.1USAGov. How to Place or Lift a Security Freeze on Your Credit Report For most burglary victims, a freeze is the stronger option unless you’re actively applying for a mortgage or car loan.
File an FTC Identity Theft Report
If you think your personal information was taken, go to IdentityTheft.gov and file a report with the Federal Trade Commission. The site generates a personalized recovery plan and an official Identity Theft Report that works as formal proof for creditors, debt collectors, or businesses that question your claim. It’s also useful if you need a separate police report specifically for the identity theft.2Federal Trade Commission. Report Identity Theft
Wipe Stolen Devices Remotely
A stolen phone, tablet, or laptop is a doorway into your email, banking apps, saved passwords, and photos. Erase it as soon as you can.
- Apple devices: use the Find My app on another Apple device or go to iCloud.com/find, select the stolen device, and choose Erase. If it’s offline, the erase runs the next time it connects. Don’t remove the device from Find My after erasing, because that disables Activation Lock, which is the main thing keeping a thief from resetting and reselling it.3Apple Support. If Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac Is Lost or Stolen
- Android devices: go to google.com/android/find or open the Find Hub app on another Android device, sign in, select the device, and choose Factory Reset. The phone needs to be powered on and connected to the internet for the wipe to go through.4Google Account Help. Find, Secure, or Erase a Lost Android Device
Once the devices are wiped, change passwords on every account you used from them. Start with email, since email is the recovery route for almost everything else, then move to banking, social media, and cloud storage. Turn on two-factor authentication anywhere you haven’t yet.
Keep the Paper Trail
Request a copy of the full police report once it’s available. You may need it for the insurance claim, and it helps if stolen items turn up months later at a pawn shop or online marketplace. Check in with the investigating officer now and then. Many burglary cases go cold, but not all, and recovered property is easier to return when you’ve stayed in contact.
Keep copies of everything this process generates: the police report, your inventory, insurance correspondence, the FTC report, and every receipt for temporary repairs. Store them somewhere other than the home that was burglarized — a cloud folder or a family member’s house works. If you end up disputing a payout or dealing with an identity-theft issue six months from now, having it all in one place will save you real time.