A confident criminal can rob a bank with nothing more than a handwritten note, but a truly ambitious theft requires specialized tools.

With help from experts in law enforcement, private security, and safecracking, the author of A Burglar’s Guide to the City identifies some of the hardware thieves use to pull off a break-in—and some things you can use to guard against one.

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Concrete coring drill: Hilti DD 350-CA, starting at $5,519
Concrete coring drill: Hilti DD 350-CA, starting at $5,519 - The tools of the break-and-enter specialist are often also those of the construction worker. A diamond-tipped coring drill can bore smooth holes through the thick concrete of a building foundation, elevator shaft—or bank vault. A version of Hilti’s DD 350-CA was used by the group of elderly men who carried out the $20 million 2015 Hatton Garden jewelry heist in London.

See it on: YouTube, where workers post videos of themselves drilling through thick slabs of concrete, sometimes with heavy-metal soundtracks © PHOTOGRAPHER: HANNAH WHITAKER FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK; PROP STYLIST: HEATHER GREENE