The one drawer burglars always check first, according to ex-officers – and where to store valuables instead

Every burglar has a routine. Former officers talk about it as if it’s muscle memory: a front‑door scan, a mental map of exits, then straight to a handful of predictable places where people keep their “important bits”. High on that list – almost embarrassingly so – is one particular drawer.

It is the drawer you think of as “the safe place”. The drawer you tell family members to use, the place where passports, spare keys and emergency cash quietly pile up. That shared logic is exactly what makes it the first stop for anyone rifling through your home.

The drawer they open before almost anything else

Ask ex‑burglary detectives where offenders head once they’re inside, and the answer is remarkably consistent: the bedside table, especially on the main bedroom side.

Not the desk. Not the kitchen. The top drawer next to the bed.

Officers say burglars learn quickly that this is where people stash the things they’d hate to lose but want within arm’s reach. It is usually small, poorly organised and crammed with items that are portable and high‑value on the street.

What often turns up there:

• Cash “for emergencies”
• Jewellery worn weekly rather than daily
• Watches and small heirlooms
• Prescription medication and painkillers
• Spare car keys and back‑door keys
• Bank cards you “don’t really use” and old PIN scribbles

The logic is obvious. It’s close, it feels private, and you can reach it in the dark. That same convenience makes it painfully easy to raid in seconds.

For an offender working against the clock, the bedside drawer is a ready‑made loot box: dense, predictable and one arm’s length from the doorway.

How burglars actually move through a house

Media images tend to show burglars lingering downstairs. Ex‑officers paint a different picture. In a typical “dipper” burglary, where the aim is speed over drama, staircases are not a deterrent; they’re a priority.

The rough pattern many describe goes like this:

1. Quick entry. Door forced or window jemmied; they listen for alarms, voices, pets.
2. Straight upstairs. Main bedroom first, then other occupied rooms.
3. Hit the hotspots. Bedside drawers, wardrobe tops, jewellery boxes, obvious “safe” tins.
4. Fast sweep downstairs. Handbags in the hall, keys by the door, devices left charging.
5. Out within minutes. The longer they stay, the higher the risk.

Most of that time is spent where you sleep, not where you cook. That is why officers get visibly weary when people talk about “hiding” valuables in the obvious bedroom places. They have seen too many emptied drawers and overturned jewellery trays to believe those still count as hiding spots.

The “don’t bother” hiding places ex-officers see all the time

The problem is not just the bedside drawer. It is a handful of hiding places that feel clever to the owner and utterly routine to a seasoned burglar. Former officers and crime‑prevention staff often mention the same shortlist.

Classic spots that are never a surprise

• Under the mattress or pillow. Cash envelopes and passports are found here so often that some burglars check this before they check the wardrobe.
• Top drawer of a chest of drawers. If it is closest to eye‑level, it gets opened first.
• Obvious jewellery boxes. Pretty boxes on dressing tables might as well be labelled.
• In the laundry basket. Stuffed into socks or under folded clothes – again, normal enough that offenders simply tip the lot out.
• Inside the wardrobe shoe box. It feels discreet; it’s actually one of the first things lifted and shaken.
• Kitchen biscuit tin or “secret” sweet tub. Officers can list brands by name; so can burglars.

None of these ideas are inherently foolish. They just rely on the assumption that someone won’t look where you look every day. Ex‑officers are blunt: if you can find it in under ten seconds, so can someone whose job is to pull a house apart.

Where to keep what: smarter spots that slow burglars down

You do not need a fortress. You need friction. The aim is to make your most painful losses harder to reach than the low‑hanging fruit, without turning your life into an obstacle course. Former officers talk in terms of layers and categories rather than one magical hiding place.

1. Items you truly cannot replace

Passports, wills, deeds, irreplaceable documents and heirloom jewellery sit in this group. For these, the advice is almost tediously practical:

• Use a small, fixed safe. Wall‑ or floor‑anchored, out of sight (not in the wardrobe, not behind the obvious picture).
• Consider off‑site storage. Bank safety box or secure document storage for deeds and originals.
• Digitise what you can. Scan documents and store backups securely in the cloud and on an encrypted drive.

A cheap, freestanding “hotel safe” that can be carried away like hand luggage is little better than a drawer. The weight and fixings matter more than the keypad.

2. Everyday valuables and “grab‑and‑go” items

This covers things you use often but would rather not lose: regular jewellery, spare cash, backup cards, tablets. Officers suggest splitting and slightly “mis‑filing” them.

Better options include:

• A safe in a boring place. Low in a cupboard among cleaning products or boxed food, not at eye‑level in a bedroom.
• Deep in an unexciting box. For example, within a clearly labelled box of “old paperwork – 2014” at the back of a cupboard, not the crisp new storage cube at arm’s height.
• Separated by type. Don’t keep keys, cash and cards together. One failure should not cost you three access routes.

The goal is not perfect camouflage; it is to make the burglar work harder and stay longer for smaller gains. Most will not.

3. Cash: how much and where

Officers are frank here: the less cash at home, the better. Where cash has to be kept on site, ex‑officers tend to prefer:

• Very small amounts in obvious places. A purse by the kettle is often all a fast burglar has time to snatch.
• Anything more locked away. Inside a fixed safe or split into obscure, dull containers that require digging, not just opening.

What they discourage is the “big envelope in the bedroom drawer” habit. It concentrates risk in the first place a thief will open.

Hiding spots that help – and the ones that backfire

Some creative solutions do work better than others, but they come with caveats. Ex‑officers see trends in what genuinely slows offenders down and what merely irritates homeowners later.

Idea	How burglars see it	Officer view
Fixed, decent‑quality safe	Awkward, time‑wasting	Strongly encouraged if properly anchored
Fake “decoy” jewellery box	Quick hit, then they leave	Useful only if real items are elsewhere
Hollow books / tins	Checked if they look new or out of place	Fine if blended into obvious clutter
Loft storage	Often skipped on fast jobs	Good for rarely needed documents, less for daily items

One theme ex‑officers repeat: don’t over‑engineer where you under‑secure. A disguised tin is pointless if the back door doesn’t lock properly, or if spare keys hang on a hook by the letterbox. Basic security makes clever hiding worth the effort.

Small changes that make your home less attractive overall

Ex‑officers rarely stop at drawers. They talk about how burglars choose homes in the first place. Hiding spots matter, but so does the visible “story” your property tells from the street.

Practical, low‑drama steps they often recommend:

• Lock routine, not just locks. Windows locked when you’re out, even “just to the shop”. Side gates shut, not swinging.
• Lights and noise that vary. Simple timer switches and a radio can make the house feel occupied without looking rigidly scheduled.
• Hide the obvious indicators. No pile of parcels visible through glass. No calendar by the door advertising your holiday dates.
• Store keys away from view. Not in the door, not on a hook in line of sight from the letterbox, not on the console table under a window.

Most burglars, former officers say, are not master planners. They are opportunists. They walk past whichever house looks easiest to explain away and move on.

How to reset your “safe place” habit in one afternoon

Ex‑officers often suggest treating security like a quick clear‑out rather than a lifestyle overhaul. Set aside one block of time and work through the high‑risk spots methodically.

A simple process:

1. Empty your bedside drawers. Remove anything you would cry about losing. Put it all in one temporary box.
2. Sort by replaceability. Documents and heirlooms in one pile; everyday items in another; pure clutter in a third.
3. Decide on a single secure location for the first pile – ideally a fixed safe or off‑site option.
4. Create one “decoy” location with low‑value, plausible bits: old costume jewellery, expired cards, small change.
5. Put genuinely valuable, frequently used pieces somewhere dull but consistent – deep cupboard, interior safe, not back by the bed.

The key is to avoid scattering valuables randomly in a panic. A system you can remember calmly beats a spot you “won’t forget” and then promptly do.

What ex-officers wish more people knew

Retired detectives will tell you that the worst part of burglary isn’t always the missing objects. It is the sense of having your private spaces rifled through, of realising how predictable your “good hiding place” was to someone who does this for a living.

They also stress that you can’t out‑think every offender. What you can do is shrink the odds and blunt the impact. Move the most painful losses out of the first, obvious drawer. Trade the illusion of secrecy for the boring reliability of locks and layers.

The bedside drawer will always be a magnet. The question is whether, when it opens, it holds your life – or just the loose ends you can afford to lose.