A few weeks ago, my neighbor found a small silver sticker stuck right next to her front door lock. It said “24/7 Locksmith” with a phone number she didn’t recognize. She almost ignored it, figured some locksmith was just leaving business cards around the neighborhood. Turns out, that little sticker might have been a signal that someone had already scoped out her house and marked it as an easy target.
This isn’t some internet conspiracy theory. Police departments from Washington State to Florida have issued real warnings about this. And locksmith stickers are just one of several things that can show up near your front door that should make you seriously reconsider your security. Let’s get into what to look for and what to actually do about it.
The Locksmith Sticker That Isn’t From a Locksmith
This is the big one, and the reason “change your locks” is not an overreaction. Organized burglary rings use scouts. These are people whose entire job is to walk through neighborhoods, peek in windows, and figure out which homes have weak security and something worth stealing. When they find a good target, they leave a small sticker near the lock on the front door. It’s usually designed to look like a normal locksmith advertisement. Silver foil, generic text like “Door Service” or “Locks Glass,” and a phone number that doesn’t trace back to any real business.
The sticker acts as a confirmed target marker. The scout moves on, and professional thieves come back days, weeks, or even months later. They already know the layout. They already know your locks are weak. That little sticker tells them “this one is ready.”
In Auburn, Washington, police specifically flagged stickers with the numbers 206-672-0270 and 206-672-0271. Neither number belonged to any licensed locksmith in the area. Some of those stickers were placed directly on top of legitimate locksmith stickers, which is a whole separate layer of sketchy. If you find a sticker you didn’t put there, peel it off immediately. Then go change your locks. Not next weekend. Today.
Chalk Marks, Symbols, and the “Da Pinchi Code”
You might have seen articles about burglars using chalk symbols to communicate about homes. An “X” on the sidewalk might mean “easy target.” A circle could mean “skip this one.” A letter like “M” reportedly means the house is empty in the morning, while “N” means nobody’s home at night. This system supposedly lets one criminal case a whole block and leave notes for others to follow up on.
Now, I’ll be straight with you. There’s some debate about how widespread this actually is. A lot of chalk marks come from utility workers, kids playing, or contractors marking underground lines. But here’s the thing: police in San Marino, California, and other cities have confirmed finding these coded markings on properties that were later burglarized. So even if it’s not happening on every block in America, it’s real enough that ignoring a weird chalk symbol next to your door is a bad idea.
If you see chalk marks you can’t explain, take a photo of them (for the police report), then wash them off. A bucket of water and a scrub brush will do the job in about thirty seconds. While you’re at it, walk around the whole perimeter of your house and look for anything else that doesn’t belong.
Random Objects That Aren’t Random at All
Chalk and stickers get most of the attention, but there’s a whole list of physical markers burglars use that most people would never think twice about. A single shoe left near your gate or driveway. A small stone placed right next to your front door. A piece of string tied to your fence. Even kidney beans left on a doorstep (seriously, this was documented in Manchester in 2021).
The logic behind all of these is the same. The burglar places the object and checks back a few days later. If the shoe is still there, the stone hasn’t moved, and the beans are sitting untouched, it confirms that nobody is really paying attention to the front of that house. That’s the green light.
Another sneaky one: clear tape placed over a keyhole. If the tape is still intact after a few days, it means nobody has used that door. This was first reported in Dublin around 2018, but it’s shown up in other areas since then. Check your keyholes. If you see tape, someone is watching.
Why the Front Door Matters More Than You Think
Here’s a number that should bother you: 34% of burglars enter through the front door. Not a window. Not the garage. The front door. That makes it the single most common entry point for break-ins in the United States. Another 22% come through the back door, so between the two, more than half of all burglaries happen through a door.
According to FBI data from 2024, there were still nearly 780,000 burglaries in the U.S. that year. Only about 11% of those cases ever get solved. That means if someone gets into your house, odds are your stuff is gone for good. The average loss per burglary is somewhere between $2,600 and $5,000 depending on the time of day. Daytime burglaries actually cost more on average because thieves have more time to work without worrying about someone coming home.
About 15% of burglars get in through unlocked doors or windows. Fifteen percent. That’s people who didn’t even need to pick a lock or kick anything in. They just walked up and turned the handle.
How to Tell If Your Locks Have Already Been Messed With
So you found a sticker, or chalk marks, or a weird pebble sitting right where it shouldn’t be. Before you panic, go look at your locks closely. Like, get down on a knee with your phone flashlight and really look.
Signs of lock picking: tiny scratch marks around the keyhole. These are finer than the marks your key would make, and the exposed metal will look bright and shiny because it’s freshly scratched. If your key has suddenly become harder to turn than usual, that’s another red flag. It means someone may have deformed the internal pins by trying to bump or pick the lock.
Signs of lock bumping: fresh nicks around the edges of the keyhole. Bumping involves hammering a filed-down key into the lock, so if it was done sloppily, you’ll see damage consistent with repeated impact. A skilled burglar leaves no trace, but most burglars (about 85%, per FBI stats) are amateurs.
Signs of drilling: small circular holes near or on the keyhole. If you can see through the hole, someone tried to destroy the lock mechanism from the outside. Signs of brute force: bent deadbolt, warped door frame, splintered wood around the lock area, paint chipped in small circles.
What to Actually Do About It (Starting Today)
Step one: remove whatever marker you found. Peel off the sticker, wash away the chalk, toss the random object. Take a photo first for the police.
Step two: call your local non-emergency police line and file a report. This creates a record and might help them connect dots across the neighborhood.
Step three: change your locks. A residential locksmith can rekey your existing deadbolt for around $50 to $100, which means your old keys stop working and you get new ones. If your lock is older or a basic builder-grade model (the kind that comes standard in most new construction), replace the whole thing. A quality Schlage or Kwikset deadbolt runs $25 to $60 at Home Depot and you can install it yourself with a screwdriver in about 15 minutes.
If you want to go further, look into anti-bump and anti-pick lock cylinders. Kwikset SmartKey deadbolts have built-in bump resistance and cost around $30 to $40. For the back door, same thing. Every exterior door in your house should have a solid deadbolt, not just the front.
Consider a Smart Lock (They’re Cheaper Than You Think)
If the idea of someone picking your lock bothers you, here’s an option that eliminates the problem entirely: smart locks. The Kwikset Obsidian, for example, has no keyhole at all. You literally cannot pick it because there’s nothing to pick. In consumer testing, it rated extremely well against drilling and kick-in attempts too.
If that sounds expensive, it doesn’t have to be. Sesame smart locks start around $30 and fit right over your existing deadbolt, so you don’t have to replace anything. The Yale Approach runs under $100. The August smart lock installs in about five minutes and works with Alexa and Google Home. Most of these let you auto-lock the door behind you, check lock status from your phone, and get alerts when someone opens the door.
The Lockly Secure Plus has a feature where the keypad numbers shuffle every time, so nobody can figure out your code by watching your fingers. That’s a nice touch if you’re in an apartment building or anywhere people might be standing behind you.
The Stuff That Actually Scares Burglars Off
Changing your locks is the most important step, but while you’re at it, layer in a few other things. Motion-activated flood lights cost $15 to $30 at Walmart and take about 20 minutes to install. Stick one above the front door and one covering the back. Burglars want darkness and quiet. Bright lights ruin both.
A visible security camera is a strong deterrent. You don’t even need a monitored system. A basic Wyze cam costs around $35 and records to a microSD card. Mount it where it’s visible from the street. Plug-in lamp timers ($5 to $10 for a two-pack at Dollar Tree or Walmart) make it look like someone’s home even when you’re out. Set one in the living room and one in a bedroom on different schedules.
And honestly, the simplest thing? Lock your doors. Every time. Even if you’re running to the mailbox. Even if you’re in the backyard. Fifteen percent of break-ins happen through unlocked doors and windows. That’s not a security failure, that’s a habit problem, and it’s the cheapest fix there is.
