[jacquesm]

Burglars routinely monitor the obituaries for dates of funerals to break into houses while the funeral is taking place.

For instance:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120330/NEWS01/703309874

But there are many more examples of that. For criminals information is a competitive edge, just like for everybody else.

The safe bet is that they exploit that edge to the maximum of their abilities to increase their rewards.

[droithomme]

This is definitely a huge problem in many areas. I've known around a dozen people whose houses were robbed while they were at a funeral. Last funeral I went to, recently, the funeral director told the family members they needed to arrange for people to housesit during the services. They did and two of them were then faced with burglars trying to break in.

There are organized crime gangs that read obituaries and make it their business to take your stuff.

If you are flying out of state to bury your spouse or parent, the risk is greater. In two cases I know of, a moving truck arrived as soon as they left for the airport and took absolutely everything.