The first instinct, faced with a forced door, is to make it right as fast as possible. It is the right instinct, a few minutes too early. Once the door is repaired, the evidence of how it was attacked is gone, and both the police report and the insurance claim are built on that evidence.
So, before anyone, including a locksmith, touches the door: take the photographs.
If someone might still be inside
If there is any chance someone is still inside, do not go in. Step away and call 112. The photographs can wait for the police.
The photographs that matter
Use your phone, with the flash on if the light is poor, and take more than you think you need:
- The whole door from outside, from a few metres back, so the building and the door number are in the picture.
- The lock from outside, close up: the cylinder, the escutcheon around it, any scratches or levering marks.
- The edge of the door and the frame, where a tool may have been forced in, and the keep in the frame.
- The whole door from inside, and the inside of the lock.
- Anything on the floor: pieces of cylinder, splinters, tools left behind.
- The way in, if it was not the door: a terrace slider, a window, a gate.
- What is missing or disturbed inside, room by room, before you tidy anything.
Photos taken by your phone carry the date and time automatically, which helps both reports.
What to keep
- Every piece of the old cylinder, in a bag. A snapped or drilled cylinder shows how it was attacked, and an insurer may ask about it.
- Receipts and photos of anything valuable that was taken, if you can find them.
- The police report number (the denuncia), once you have filed it.
Reporting it
Call 112, or 091 for the Policía Nacional and 062 for the Guardia Civil, and they will tell you which force deals with it and whether they will come to the house. A report can usually also be started online and completed in person. Keep a copy: your insurer will need it, and so will any claim for the repair.
Then, the repair
Once the police have seen the door, or have said they will not be coming, the repair can start. The first visit is about one thing: a door that locks tonight. The upgrade, a high-security cylinder, a guard plate, a stronger lock, can be planned afterwards, with the insurer’s answer in hand.
If the storm season rather than a burglar is behind the damage, a weathered lock looks very different from a forced one; after a Levante storm: sand and salt in front-line locks explains what weather does. Tenants should tell their landlord straight away, and renting in El Campello: can a tenant change the lock? covers what they can do about the cylinder.