The hours after a break-in are a blur, and it is easy to do the helpful-feeling thing in the wrong order. Here is the calm sequence: stay safe, document, secure, then repair, so you sleep behind a door that holds and your insurance claim goes smoothly.
Do these four things in order, because the order protects both your safety and your claim. First, get everyone out or to a safe room and confirm the intruder is gone. Second, call the police and file a report. Third, photograph everything, the splintered jamb, the bent bolt, the pry marks, before anyone cleans up. Fourth, call a locksmith to secure the opening.
The temptation is to start tidying and screwing the door shut right away. Resist it for ten minutes. An insurer wants a police report number and dated photos of the damage in its original state, and a locksmith repair erases the evidence the moment we start. We would rather you spend two minutes with your phone camera first. Then we make the door safe.
Same-day securing is the heart of a break-in call, and what it takes depends on what the burglar broke. If the door still hangs true and only the lock was defeated, we rekey or replace the cylinder and you are locked up within the hour. If the jamb split where the bolt seats, we repair or reinforce the frame so the bolt has something solid to grab again.
When the damage is severe, a split header or a door knocked off its hinges, we brace and board the opening so it locks and holds overnight, then schedule the fuller carpentry repair. Nobody on our crew leaves a Denver home open to the street. The 24/7 emergency locksmith service exists for exactly this, because break-ins do not wait for business hours, and an exposed door at 2 a.m. is its own emergency.
Most forced entries beat the frame, not the lock itself, and that single fact reshapes how you repair after a break-in. A solid deadbolt is useless if it seats into a flimsy strike plate held by two half-inch screws biting into soft pine jamb. One hard kick splits the wood beside the bolt, the door swings in, and the lock never failed at all. It was the wood that gave.
The fix is cheap and dramatic. A box strike plate or a reinforced strike, anchored with three-inch screws that reach past the jamb into the wall stud, turns a kick-in into a sore foot. We add a strike upgrade on most break-in repairs because skipping it leaves the real weakness in place. If you want the full hardware picture, the deadbolt upgrade guide walks through which locks and reinforcements actually hold on Denver doors.
Rekey when the hardware is sound and only key control is in doubt; replace when the lock was damaged or defeated easily. After a forced entry where a window was smashed and a hand reached the thumbturn, your locks may be fine and a rekey settles the question of who holds a working key. After a bumped or picked lock, replacing with a better cylinder closes the method that worked.
A full home rekey across four to six cylinders usually runs $150 to $300, and it resets every key at once so no old copy opens your door. Replacement costs more because you are buying hardware too. We walk through that tradeoff in the rekey vs replace cost guide. After a break-in, our default is to rekey what is solid and replace what was beaten, then reinforce the frame no matter which way that call goes.
Same-day break-in securing usually runs $150 to $400, and the figure depends on how much the burglar destroyed. A rekey-plus-strike-reinforcement on an intact door sits near the low end. Frame repair, a new deadbolt, and carpentry where the jamb split push higher. After-hours response, which most break-in calls are, adds to the standard rate, and we name that figure before we roll.
We give you an itemized invoice with every part and labor line broken out, because that is the document your adjuster needs. Pair it with the police report and your photos and the claim moves faster. Whether the call comes from a historic Denver rowhouse with original hardware or a newer Aurora tract home, the priority is the same: get you locked up tonight, then make the repair hold.
Make sure everyone is safe and the intruder is gone, then call the police and file a report before anything else. Photograph the damaged door, frame, and any forced lock before you touch it. Only then call a locksmith to secure the opening. The photos and the report are what your insurer will ask for, so capture them first.
Yes. Same-day securing is the whole point of a break-in call. If the door still closes, we can rekey or replace the lock and reinforce the strike that day. If the frame is split, we can repair it or board and brace the opening so it locks and holds until a fuller repair. Nobody should sleep behind a door that will not latch.
Rekey if the hardware itself is sound and only the key control is in question, which is usually faster and cheaper. Replace if the cylinder, bolt, or deadbolt is damaged or was defeated easily. After a forced entry, the strike plate and frame matter as much as the lock, so we look at the whole assembly, not just the cylinder.
Most break-ins beat the frame, not the lock. A builder-grade strike plate held by two short screws into soft jamb wood splits with one solid kick, even with a good deadbolt above it. The fix is a reinforced strike and three-inch screws that reach the wall stud. That single upgrade does more against a kick-in than a pricier lock alone.
We give you an itemized invoice that lists every part and repair, which is what an adjuster needs to process the claim. Pair that with your police report and your own photos of the damage. We cannot file the claim for you, but a clear, dated invoice with parts and labor broken out removes the back-and-forth that slows a payout.
We respond fast, document the damage for your insurer, and reinforce the frame so it holds, not just the lock. Itemized invoice, insured, local crew, 24/7 across the metro.
Last updated: May 28, 2026.
