On March 3rd, Vancouver Police issued a warning about a series of apartment break-ins using hot glue. Hot glue is a type of adhesive. It is used by heating and melting a stick of resin using a tool called a glue gun. When the resin cools, it hardens and bonds things together.
Police have revealed that the suspect’s modus operandi is to first break into an apartment late at night and apply hot glue to connect the top of the front door to the door frame with a thin thread. When the resident returns home and opens the door, the glue thread breaks. However, if the resident is not home, the glue thread remains unbroken, indicating that the resident is not home.
It is believed that the suspect would break into the apartment again within a few days of applying the glue and enter a room where the glue was still present. The incidents were reported between August 9 and December 24, 2025. To date, a total of 10 units has been affected, including five apartment buildings in Vancouver and one in Burnaby.
Police say the suspects target older apartment buildings with poor security, specifically those with poorly secured stairwell doors and no security cameras. Similar break-ins have also occurred in Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta.