Surprising tricks burglars use with author Geoff Manaugh

Grow Big Always

I guess I’m naive because I watch heist movies like Ocean’s Eleven and think nothing that elaborate happens in real life, but after my conversation with this week’s guest, architectural writer Geoff Manaugh, I have a dramatically different point of view. There’s sort of x-ray glasses that burglars use when they look at where we live or where we work, that the rest of us never see.

Encompassing nearly 2,000 years of heists and break-ins, A Burglar’s Guide to the City, draws on the expertise of reformed bank robbers, FBI Special Agents, private security consultants, the L.A.P.D. Air Support Division, and architects past and present. Whether picking locks or climbing the walls of high-rise apartments, finding gaps in a museum’s surveillance routine or discussing home invasions in ancient Rome, the book ensures readers will never enter a bank again without imagining how to loot the vault or walk down the street without planning the perfect getaway.

After listening to this episode with Geoff, I know I saw my house differently and it would be impossible for the same thing not to happen to you.

Music credit: The Italian Job, John Powell

Photo credit: Sasha Maslov