According to Wikipedia, theft is a criminal offense against someone else’s property. Theft, or stealing as it is popularly known, is not the same as theft. For insurance reasons alone, there are several differences here. But what are the differences and how can you best protect yourself against them?

First of all, we need to clarify the different types of theft. Here are a few sub-categories that the law distinguishes. We even find some of them amusing.

Types of theft

• Simple theft: stealing movable property without damaging anything
• Burglary: intrusion through visible use of force in premises or the use of wrong keys.
• Intercourse theft: something is stolen after sexual intercourse
• Bicycle theft: stealing bicycles in public places
• Shoplifting: unpaid removal of goods
• Mouth robbery: theft of food
• “Schwänzelpfenning”: embezzlement of a small sum (the word must really be very, very old)
• Robbery: Violence is done or threatened to someone
• Pickpocketing: street crime, something is stolen from your pocket
• Trick theft: the victim is misled and something is stolen from him in the process
• Vandalism and looting: severe damage to objects and robbery

There are certainly other types of theft that we haven’t listed here. Feel free to send us an e-mail and we will complete it.

As you can see, there are several ways to steal something from someone and many have had experiences with them in one way or another. It is all too understandable to want to protect yourself against theft. Especially since the chance of clearing up in the event of theft is very low. For classic theft, the clearance rate in Germany is 11.5%, for pickpockets it is just 5.7%. So it is consistently smart to take precautions to make it as difficult as possible for thieves.

Silviu Reghin
Lead Marketing & Sales
silviu@guardmine.com