The steps, in the right order
Touch nothing before the police arrive. The marks on the door, the door frame and the lock form part of the official findings; a door that has already been repaired makes their examination impossible and weakens your case.
Photograph the scene as soon as you can, from several angles: the outside of the door, the area around the lock, the frame, the splintered wood, the inside of the home. These photos will serve your insurance claim, and you will be glad to have them later.
File a police report at the police station or gendarmerie. The receipt and the official record are required by almost every insurer. Then declare the loss to your insurer within the deadline set by your policy — most often two working days for theft, but check your own.
Only then do the permanent repairs take place. In the meantime, temporary securing lets you close up the home without destroying useful evidence.
Immediate securing
When the door has been forced, the first objective is that it closes and holds, while the claim moves forward and the permanent parts are fitted.
Depending on the damage, this may mean fitting a temporary lock, repairing the attacked strike plate or door frame, securing a door that was lifted off its hinges, or boarding up a broken glazed opening.
Keep every part that is removed: the drilled cylinder, the torn-off lock, pieces of the door frame. An insurer may ask to see them, and they are physical evidence of the nature of the attack.
Why replace everything, even what "still works"
A lock that has been through a crowbar attack, an attempted cylinder snapping or bumping no longer offers the level of resistance it was designed for, even if the key still turns. The internal tolerances have shifted, and parts have been weakened.
The door frame deserves particular attention. In many break-ins it is not the lock that gives way but the wood around the strike plate, torn out by leverage. Fitting a new lock onto a split frame means fixing only half the problem.
If keys went missing during the burglary, replacing the cylinder is no longer an option but a necessity — including for secondary doors, the cellar and the garage if those keys were on the same ring.
Reinforcing without going overboard
After a break-in, the temptation is to armour everything. The useful approach is more measured: identify where the intrusion happened, and fix that weak point first.
A door forced at the cylinder calls for a high-security cylinder protected by a security escutcheon or cylinder guard. A door that gave way at the bottom calls for additional locking points. A door lifted off its hinges calls for anti-lift hinge pins. Entry through a window or a French window is not solved by reinforcing the front door.
Think too about the ways in that get forgotten: side door, cellar door, garage access, a glazed opening onto an inner courtyard. In Bordeaux's older housing stock, these secondary openings are frequently the weak link.