You may think you’re being clever by leaving a front door key concealed under a plant pot, but this “secret” hiding place really isn’t all that secret when you consider that 20% of home owners hide front door keys within 10 feet of their front door, and this is something which hasn’t gone unnoticed by burglars. Home insurance provider Esure conducted a survey to discover where home owners like to hide spare door keys, and found that the most popular hiding place was under a plant pot, followed by under door mats and also under car tyres. However AA Insurance has spotted a rising trend of home break-ins in which car keys are stolen. During the period of 2008/2009, there were 19,400 burglaries in the UK in which car keys were taken and 2,700 muggings or personal robberies which resulted in the victim’s car keys being taken. With burglars looking to target homes with a view to stealing car keys, experts are advising home owners to avoid the obvious pitfalls of leaving house keys in a not-so-secret-hiding-place outside their front door, as that’s the first place potential robbers will look. More worryingly, Esure home insurance provider also found that even after having house keys stolen, a high number of people fail to get their locks changed, even if their keys were stolen along with a label detailing their address.