Cat Burglar

By Bob Goldsmith.

“Bob, what is a cat burglar?”

The question came from a nephew of mine, who never calls me uncle Bob. The question, coming out of the blue as it did, caught me unawares. I replied along the lines of he is a man that gets into peoples homes and steals their things.

“Yeah” He said. “But what is a cat burglar?

I looked at him dumbfounded. Hadn't I just answered that?

Admittedly it was not a very detailed answer, he was only ten years old at the time, and I did not want to fill his head with too many facts about burglars, some of which may be a little disturbing to a young kid. Had he not understood? I thought that he must have done, my explanation was pretty straightforward, even for a ten year old to grasp.

I had the fleeting thought that he must be going deaf, and at such a young age, but then it dawned on me.

He was asking what the difference was between your common everyday burglar and a cat burglar.

Before saying more, I had to allow myself a little time to think. What exactly does this expression mean? Does anyone still use the expression these days? I remembered then a fairly recent news headline, along the lines of “Cat Burglars Make Off With Gems Haul.” The story was about a pair of thieves who got in the second story window of a home by a bit of skillful climbing.

That brought to mind another expression for that kind of burglar, a second story man.

Recalling that news story helped me to put together some sort of an answer to my nephew's question. I explained that we sometimes call a burglar who enters a home without noise, perhaps stealthily climbing through an upper story window, a cat burglar. We call them this because they operate like a cat, quietly creeping in and out avoiding confrontation of any kind.

I contrasted this method of burglary with that most often used by the opportunity burglar, using brute force to break open a door. I did not compare it to home invasion, again remembering that the boy was only ten years old.

In addition to my brief explanation, I told him the best way to avoid being cat burgled was to not leave any windows unlocked when you leave the house, second story or not. The blank, and somewhat far away, look on the boy's face alerted me that I'd perhaps drifted into overkill. So I left it there, saving my long list of home security advice for another time.

My nephew said nothing. So I asked the question that perhaps I should have asked earlier.

“Why did you want to know what a cat burglar is?”

I was more than half expecting to hear that he thought the expression referred to someone who stole cats. But I did not get any other answer but the kind that you often get from a ten year old, a sullen look and a shrug.

© copyright surveillanceforsecurity.com