9.1 Robbery, Burglary & Theft

Distinguishing Crime Perils

Every robbery can involve theft, but not every theft is robbery or burglary. The exam uses the facts of access, force, threat, and custody.

Definitions

Theft is the broad unlawful taking of property. A policy may define it more narrowly or combine theft, disappearance, and destruction in a crime insuring agreement.

Robbery is taking property from a person who has custody by violence, threat of violence, or another stated overt felonious act. The presence of a person and coercion are central.

Burglary traditionally requires unlawful entry into or exit from premises, often with visible marks of force at the point of entry or exit, while a person is absent. Modern forms may use different wording, so apply the definition.

Mysterious disappearance means property is missing with no explainable cause. It is not proof of theft merely because the owner cannot find the item. A personal articles floater may cover mysterious disappearance while a named-peril form does not.

Examples

• A masked person threatens a cashier and takes money: robbery.
• A person pries a locked rear door and removes inventory overnight: burglary under a form requiring forcible entry evidence.
• A shoplifter conceals merchandise during business hours: theft, but not necessarily burglary or robbery.
• Inventory is short with no evidence of when or how: unexplained shortage or mysterious disappearance, often excluded.
• An employee manipulates refunds and takes cash: employee dishonesty, requiring the relevant crime coverage.

Property-form treatment

Homeowners and commercial property policies can cover theft but impose exclusions and special limits. Common issues include:

• theft from a dwelling under construction;
• property at another residence;
• theft by an insured or employee;
• money, securities, jewelry, firearms, silverware, or business property sublimits;
• unattended vehicle limitations;
• vacancy provisions;
• voluntary parting induced by fraud.

Commercial crime policies separate employee theft, forgery, inside-premises theft, outside-premises loss, computer fraud, and funds-transfer fraud. Selecting “burglary” cannot bypass an employee exclusion when the wrongdoer was an employee with authorized access.

Investigation

Document the last verified inventory, discovery, access controls, alarms, keys, surveillance, point of entry, police report, purchase records, sales and return data, and prior shortages. Preserve damaged locks and video. Reconcile book inventory with physical counts and normal shrinkage.

A police report is useful evidence, not a coverage decision. Criminal charging standards and policy definitions serve different purposes.

Worked claim

A warehouse reports $60,000 of missing electronics. The rear door has fresh pry marks, video shows an unknown intruder, and serial-number inventory verifies the items. Those facts support burglary and theft. If there are no entry marks and a supervisor’s access card was used, examine employee theft and authorized access. If records merely show unexplained shrinkage over six months, the policy may exclude inventory shortage proved only by computation.

Robbery custody issue

Crime forms can distinguish a messenger, custodian, and watchperson. Property taken from a messenger by threat outside the premises can fall under outside-the-premises robbery, while property left unattended may not. Identify who possessed the property.

Public-adjuster boundary

The adjuster prepares the insured’s property claim and cooperates with lawful investigation. The adjuster must not coach a witness, alter the description to fit a peril, conceal employee involvement, or promise that criminal conduct will be prosecuted. Truthful classification protects the client from misrepresentation allegations.

Exam shortcut

Ask whether a person was confronted, premises were unlawfully entered, property was simply taken, or disappearance is unexplained. Then read the policy definition and exclusion. The common-language label is only the starting point.

Classify crime facts without inventing evidence

Robbery involves taking property from a person or in the person’s presence by force or threat. Burglary traditionally involves unlawful entry into premises, often with visible signs or other policy-defined evidence. Theft is the broader unlawful taking and may include events that are neither robbery nor burglary. Definitions in the policy control, so the absence of a dramatic forced door can matter under a burglary form without proving that no theft occurred.

Build a crime-loss chronology from last known possession to discovery. Preserve access logs, video, alarm records, keys, lock information, police reports, employee schedules, inventory counts, sales records, and evidence of forced entry. Separate unexplained inventory shortage, employee dishonesty, mysterious disappearance, and external theft because different forms or exclusions may apply. Do not accuse a person without support.

For property recovered after payment, document condition and coordinate salvage or repayment obligations. If a third party is responsible, preserve subrogation evidence. On the exam, use the presence of the victim, force or threat, manner of entry, and identity or role of the taker to choose among crime terms.