>But there is a bad trend where B&Es consist of 4 to 6 individuals and at least some of those are usually armed.<
What is the pattern for enticing them to break in? Do they hit one house after the next until they locate a particular item or what? Do they tend to stay in certain income level areas? I can’t picture them busting into Section 8 housing unless they were going after a known drug dealer.
having had acquaintence with a few low level zombies back in they day [ same circle of neighborhood, NOT runnin buddies], mostly predators look for 'easy' circumstances..ie rural outta the way homes or rows of darkened houses at 6 pm during fall daylight savings etc for purely 'lets get whatever they got to pawn' type hits...
the more dangerous breed imo were the guys that saw somethin that tickled whatever their fancy was at the time, ie ie drugs, 'cool' electronics, guns etc and determined to have that particular item ASAP...
all in all, mostly criminals of 'opportunity' either way, which is to say, Dont advertise and Dont 'look' like an easy target, and be a good boyscout...
There were some of these in south Florida in the last couple of years. The large jobs were thought to be planned by persons who had some legal access to the house and used the job as an opportunity to case houses. This might be an employee of a remodeling / maintenance company.
These differ from the more typical push in job. That seems to be a case of “it’s in a nice neighborhood so there must be something that I want in there.” I work in a gun store part time and we get a significant number of locals who’ve decided to learn to shoot after they or their neighbors had a push in. All the ones I can recall were small ones - one or two thieves.
There were also several break ins at the complex where I live last year. The landlord sent out warnings to all the tenants about it. This is in the nice part of the town, several miles away from the hellhole. There are opinions that the thieves were employees of the landscape contractor or migrant workers. There are several farms nearby. I think it was opportunism and the thieves moved on, but there are lots of northerners here and one of them may have been afraid to tell the police that he chased off a burglar at gunpoint.