How can any possible suspects be ruled out when the perpetrator is unknown ? In these times thieves are likely to break into anywhere they think they can find what they're looking for They tend to move through very quickly since they usually don't want a confrontation with their victims All you do know is that someone fancies your weapons collection, such things are easily sold online A good watchdog prevents such problems most of the time, that's something you should consider as well 

One thing you don't want to do is install an electronic alarm system from one of the companies that provide such a service as the police will be sent out when the alarm is triggered Police have used these events as a pretext to search the premises and install surveillance equipment while they're doing it if they suspect the crime victim to be involved with drugs

That sounds like a good idea since he's probably the damned thief that's been breaking in It's possible he's simply walking his dog for exercise but you aren't in a position to suffer any more losses from your collection

If he's a simple thief he probably didn't bother to turn the computer on, but if he's something else you should familiarize yourself with keyloggers:

http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204791931

some security software:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/pc/security-tools.html

After you've made sure your system isn't infected it would be best to encrypt any information you don't want used against you in court:

http://www.truecrypt.org/

 

Get TrueCrypt.  It creates an encrypted file on your computer and mounts it like another hard drive.  Move anything you don't want found into the file, then burn the file onto a disk and for god's sake pick a good key and don't write it down anywhere (hint:  if you can pronounce the key, it's not a good key.)

http://www.truecrypt.org/


Back-up anything else that's important but not incriminating, then you'll want to wipe your hard drive clean.

If you understand how to use linux, you can load up a linux boot disk and there are a few tools you can use from within there.

If you've never worked with linux, your best bet is to take your hard drive to a friend's house and hook it up to his computer as a second hard drive, then delete everything on it and use SDelete to clean up the free space, I would say 10 passes minimum but the more the better.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

Edit:  I just saw hypnos' new security thread and he names some more file deletion utilities that can be used.  I think you're still going to want to do it from another computer so you can be sure to kill the swap file and anything else you couldn't get if you were trying to delete files on the same hard drive you were running off of.

http://127.0.0.1/talk/index.php/topic,121.0.html

i concur with using truecrypt, that app rocks.  do what was mentioned above, create an encrypted volume (make the key very long and complex and nothing that is in the dictionary, if you MUST write the key down somewhere then write it down and keep it at a friend's place etc, do not keep that key anywhere that can be tied to you).  make the encrypted volume large enough to hold all your files but small enough to fit on a cd, dvd, dvd-dl, whatever the largest type of disk is that you can burn.  make multiple encrypted volumes if necessary to fit them on dvd's or whatever.  move all your stuff to these volumes and burn them to back them up.  keep the backups elsewhere but not where the key is.  the key will be your downfall if they find it!

ok so now your stuff is backed up, you need to cover your tracks, check out this article.  they are describing using a nice piece of free software
h**p://www.stanford.edu/group/security/securecomputing/data_destruction_Dban.html

ok so your data is safe and your tracks are covered.  now keep yourself clean in the future.  perhaps think of using encryption on a lower level than truecrypt going forward.  as in encrypt the entire volume your OS is on.  again, very long difficult key with no real words in it and letters/numbers/symbols.  the more random and long it is the better, it could mean the difference between taking hours/days versus years/decades/centuries to try to crack it.  i suggest encrypting your entire OS volume going forward so that you don't have to worry about wiping if you are caught off guard.  maybe in the future you won't have a heads up or something.  there are tools out there that will permanently lock the volume upon * incorrect password attempts.  that means it's gone for good which can be a good thing under the right circumstances.  i don't have any recommendations off the top of my head but perhaps someone else is familiar with a nice utility.  you can purposely enter in the wrong password * times to ensure that it's locked for good and just claim that you must've forgotten the key.  i have no idea what type of legal repercussion this would have b/c it may be considered similar to destroying evidence, it would certainly piss them off to say the least, but it's probably better than the alternative.  be safe.

i caught up to the thief he's gonning to suffer soem serious life threating injuries if you he looks at me cross agian and his witnesss friends well you nobody like complianing witness? do they??
swij like to play for keeps.

Don't talk about harming people on this forum.

I agree with Geez, rarely do cops take stuff (far more likely to leave stuff behind in my experience) when doing an illegal entry - they can take enough legally

But if you are sufficiently concerned to start thinking surveillance, then there is an obvious need to clean house - just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

People I know generally go with gut instinct - when they get seriously sketchy, it is time to stop for a bit. It is very hard for police to get repeated warrants when they come up empty, not smoking dope (and having assorted equipment/drug paraphernalia, or having anything illegal/stolen on the premises if they do come, means they get a strike, couple of strikes makes it fucking hard to assemble probable cause, it then begins to look like harassment.

Signs of surveillance are (1) repeatedly being ignored while driving other than in accordance with the Road Rules/Regulations (ie. you are flagged - DO NOT STOP); (2) people being busted after discussing things over your phone or in your house/etc; (3) being followed whilst driving (do a random road trip get someone to watch who is behind you - number plates of the first 10 cars behind you, get someone else to do so 20km and many turns down the road - if 1 or more are the same, get busy cleaning); (4) same as (3) but on foot, get friends to videotape the first 20 people behind you, compare that to the videotape taken 2-3km down the road after taking a random, doubling-back type route).

Don't imagine for a minute you'll know by the telephone's behavior - taps take fuck all to set up nowadays and you'd never know if they were or were not there. Assume they are.

Any dope missing? If there is dope missing, you know its not a cop. If there was dope missing and it was a cop, they would already have busted you.

Cops steal dope by making busts and turning in less than all they confiscated. Goes for money too. Who is going to call them on it? You are not going to say there was more dope than what they say, and if you said there was more money, no one would believe you anyway. Same thing is true of guns. They'd come in seize twenty, list ten, and let you argue they took all twenty... who will a jury believe? Who would a DA believe?

 I figured out the reason why dope goes missing during a seizure, not all of the dope going missing, just some of it.
 Its to pay off the rats that narked you out.
 It keeps them 'in the game' & the popo can keep them on a short leash.

 Beware of anybody that justs 'pops up' out of your history, like school friends or workmates.
 Anyone who presses you for time over a dope deal, wants to know 'where its stored' or who you get it from, is broke but suddenly comes up with money, has 'a buyer' for everything you have that they know about.
 Someone who asks just too many damn questions, peeps who won't appear in public with you, like going to the supermarket or wants to know about 'who's gonna be there' when you go somewhere.
 Anyone whos been charged or been busted & still hasn't gone up in Court on the charges.
 Who won't let you use their cellphone & maybe even those Gshock watchs that store telephone numbers on them.

 If you have any sense, temporarily bug them with a cellphone