Security · 5 September 2026 · 5 min read
After a Burglary in Alicante: What to Do, in Order
Touch nothing, call the police, file the denuncia, secure the door, call the insurer. What each step involves in Alicante, and why the order matters.
Alicante recorded 677 home burglaries in 2025, the highest absolute number of any municipality in the province, according to Ministry of the Interior figures reported in the local press. For the people behind each of those numbers, the hours afterwards are confusing and the order in which things are done matters more than it seems.
1. Do not go in
If you arrive to find the door forced or open, step back. Whoever did it may still be inside. Call 091 (Policía Nacional) or 112. If you are already inside when you notice, leave and call from outside.
2. Touch nothing
The door, the lock and the frame are evidence, and so is anything moved inside. Do not tidy up, and do not try the lock to see if it still works. Photograph everything on your phone before anyone touches it.
3. File the denuncia
The police will explain how to file a formal report, a denuncia. You can also file it in person at a police station, or start it online for some offences through the national police website and finish it in person. Keep the copy with its reference number: your insurer will not process a claim without it.
If your Spanish is limited, you are entitled to ask for an interpreter when giving your statement.
4. Secure the door
Once the police have finished, call a locksmith. The priority is a door that locks tonight: a forced cylinder replaced, a damaged lock swapped or, if the frame is split, the door secured temporarily until a carpenter can repair it.
Ask for:
- photographs of the damage before work starts,
- an itemised invoice naming every part,
- every new key counted and handed to you.
5. Call your insurer
With the denuncia reference, the photos and the invoice. Many home policies cover repairs after a burglary and some cover the emergency locksmith; the policy decides, not the locksmith.
Afterwards: make it harder next time
A door that has been forced once is a door that has been chosen once. Look at:
- High security cylinders certified against bumping, picking, drilling and snapping.
- Armoured escutcheon plates that stop a cylinder being gripped and snapped.
- Terrace and sliding doors, which are often easier than the front door and deserve a second keyed lock.
- Everyone who holds a key. Change the cylinder if you cannot account for them all.
If someone came in through a terrace door, the break-in repair page covers sliding doors too.