Locally we had a huge problem with door to door salesmen who would case the place out. They walk around suburban residential neighborhoods at noon on a weekday when probably half the houses are empty, maybe with a ladder as a prop, hard hats, clipboards, etc. If no one answers the door 3 times at 1:30pm on a Tuesday, then on the fourth time they pull up in a truck, break the back door, clean the place out, drive to the next house, etc.

They also went around on trash day recording on their map who was throwing out giant cardboard boxes formerly containing large screen TVs, but those are now getting so cheap and so uncomfortably large that they're not so much of a target anymore. My 42 inch would have sold for several thousand maybe a decade ago, but now its just a couple hundred bucks, why even bother, compared to grabbing some laptops or jewelry.