The woman spent ten years in prison for her crimes and now educates others on burglary prevention via social media.
Jen Gomez (@jenjen.gomez) shares videos about her life in prison and her experiences as a convicted felon with her 99,000 TikTok followers.
In a recent clip, the influencer explored ways to prevent your home from being broken into during the festive season.
Jen shared some simple tips that could potentially save you from future heartbreak.
She should know, having successfully stolen more than a million dollars in valuables between 2006-2010.
She said: “The things that I used to look for and do when I would scope out homes to steal from are very easy to resolve.”
The first tip that the former burglar gave was to install a video door camera.
Jen said: “Most burglars do not want to come face to face with homeowners or to be identified or recognized in any way.
“Nine times out of ten, the first thing that a burglar does is knock on the front door to see if you’re home.”
“If you have a video doorbell camera, the burglar will leave when they see it as they know that they have already been caught on camera.
“I completely would stay away from anything that had some sort of surveillance.”
The ex-cat burglar’s next tip was to invest in home security that alerts you if a window has been broken.
To avoid triggering burglar alarms, Jen would shatter a window to climb through – but if an alarm went off after she broke it, she would leave immediately.
She said: “When I heard that, I would just automatically run away. There wasn’t much I could do at that point to go in and still look for things. I didn’t have a lot of time.”
Jen’s next piece of expert advice is to keep your home protected by closing your curtains.
“When you leave your blinds open, it’s very easy for a burglar to see inside and choose exactly what they want to take, see if an alarm is set or not, or to check the layout of a house.”
She said she used to gain a lot of information simply by glancing inside the window of a home she was thinking of stealing from.
Finally, Jen advised that you get to know your neighbors “even just a little bit.”
She said: “This way if a stranger is hanging around, they’ll recognize it’s someone they don’t know and they will be cautious.”
Viewers loved the video and many thanked Jen for sharing her story and giving advice.
One person wrote: “Very useful content! Thieves frequently scope out my street. They press my Ring doorbell and as soon as I answer, they say ‘wrong house.'”
Another said: “Omg this is so true. I was robbed and they did exactly that, knocked on the door then proceeded to the backyard before breaking the glass.”
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