First: do not go inside
If the door is open or the lock is damaged and you have not been in yet, stay out and call the police. That is not drama; it is the one instruction every police service gives, and it costs nothing to follow.
Second: the report number
You will need it for the insurance claim, and getting it later is harder than getting it now. Write it down somewhere that is not the phone you may be handing to someone.
Third: photograph everything before anything is touched
The damaged door, the forced lock, the frame, the entry point, the room. Insurers ask for this, and a locksmith repairing the door will necessarily change what it looks like.
Fourth: what can be made secure tonight
Almost always more than people expect. A forced door can usually be got closing and locking again the same visit, even where the proper repair needs parts or a carpenter in daylight.
- The lock itself replaced or rekeyed, so any key taken is useless.
- A damaged strike plate reinforced or replaced — this is very often the actual point of failure rather than the lock.
- A frame that has split temporarily reinforced so the door latches.
- A broken window opening boarded so the house is closed.
- Every other external door rekeyed, because a key taken from inside opens all of them.
Fifth: the thing people forget
If anything with keys on it was taken — a handbag, a key rack, a car — then the locks are no longer secure regardless of how the entry happened. Rekeying is the answer, and it is quick.
The same applies if a set of house keys went with a stolen car. The car keys usually get replaced immediately and the house keys are forgotten, which is exactly backwards.
In the following week: fix the entry point, not just the door
Most forced entries in Melbourne homes do not come through the front door. They come through a sliding door onto the yard, a garage side door, a laundry door or an unsecured window — the openings that get no attention because the front door has a deadlock.
Fixing the door that was broken and leaving the opening that was actually easy is the most common mistake after a break-in. Walk the property with someone and look at every opening, not just the one with the damage.