Criminology

Bob is a maintenance worker at a local high school.  He is married but has no children.  He has been going to community college to get a degree for the last year.  He is 26 years old.  His parents are living but they do not communcate often.  He likes his job, but does not feel any particular loyalty to it.  He often checks the want ads to look for possible opportunities he would be qualified for.  He has been working at the school for a few years and has gained the trust of his supervisor.  His job duties include general maintenance and cleaning.  One of the more useful skills Bob has been trained on is locksmithing.  He has a good understanding of how locks work and how they are installed, as well as how to open one if it is locked.

Because of his situation Bob has a plan to break into peoples houses that live close to the school during school hours.  The neighborhood behind the school is a good area and most of the families are dual income.  Bob will go to work as usual and at the first opportunity, he will walk to the neighborhood and rob several houses.  Then later at night he will take the stolen goods to his brother-in-law who works at a pawnshop.  Bob will mainly look for jewelry and small but valuable electronics that can be easily taken.  IPods, laptops, DVD players, MP3 players and cash are all on his wish list.  All are easily moved and hidden and with luck some families may take a few days to realize that their property is missing.

He has two days to procure the necessary money.  Bob is not greedy, but he realizes that he needs to steal more than what he is wanting to get for the items.  He determines that if he steals roughly 7000 to 9000 worth of items he should be able to get the 4000 he needs.  He had to make up a lie about why he needed money in order to convince his brother-in-law to help him.

Bob would start his day like normal.  Get up, get dressed for work and get to work on time.  He would make sure several people saw him at work and that the work day was underway before attempting to leave the school grounds to start his robberies.  To jimmy locks Bob needs only basic tools that he can get from work, and he brings a crowbar along just in case he has trouble with a lock.  Since his job requires him to visit various locations in and around the school, he will be able to leave the school grounds unnoticed for a decent about of time.  Bobs goal is to hit 5 to 7 houses in a 4 hour time span and be able to find roughly 1500-2000 worth of items in each house.  Bob has worked at the school for a couple of years and knows the neighborhood and basic layout of the houses.

Bob will stash his maintenance clothes in the schoolyard before he goes into the neighborhood.  Most houses have backdoors or garage doors and Bob will go to the larger houses in the neighborhood because he believes they may have more valuables.  Since this neighborhood is in a good area, Bob knows that most houses do not arm their burglar alarms during the day.  Bob will go to the houses that have no movement and no cars in the driveway or garage.  He will break into the house quickly and go to the Master Bedroom to look for jewelry and money.  He will then go into any other bedrooms to look for small electronics.  Finally he will go to the living room but only if there are no windows or there are blinds or curtains that can be shut.  He would look for home electronics (laptops, av equipment) to take.  Bob will wear a backpack and gloves so that he  can put the items away and not leave fingerprints.  Bob will go to several houses and repeat this process.  Bob will try to disturb as little as possible.

His focus will be to get enough to pay back the 4000 and he will not get greedy.  Bob feels his best chance for success would be to get all of the money that first day.  The second day would be much riskier to try and hit the same neighborhood.

In order for Bob to pull off this theft and not get caught, several things would need to happen.
No one is home or comes home when he is robbing a property and the burglar alarms are not set.
No one notices Bob being gone from work.
He is not noticed in the neighborhood he is robbing.
His brother-in-law does not turn him in.
Bob does not leave a trace of himself that can be detected that can lead back to him
If he is questioned by the police he needs to be a good liar so they do not become suspicious.
In order for Bob to be successful he will need to act like he belongs in the neighborhood.  He needs to be prepared to be quick about getting in and out of houses.  He needs to have good excuses lined up for work in case someone notices his absence.  He needs to convince his brother-in-law to want to help and cover for him if necessary.  He needs to be prepared to answer questions by the police.  Bob needs to think ahead about his actions and make no mistakes.