second-story man

English

Alternative forms

Noun

second-story man (plural second-story men)

  1. (slang, US) A burglar, especially one who performs a legitimate service at a residence and returns later to perform the theft, usually by way of an unconventional access point above ground level that was identified in the initial visit.
    Synonym: cat burglar
    • 2000 September 19, Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 16:
      For a brief period in Warsaw in the 1890s, Kornblum had been forced into a life of crime, as a second-story man, and the prospect of prizing the Golem out of its current home, unsuspected, awoke wicked old memories of gaslight and stolen gems.
    • 2007, Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 4:
      They were appalled by his idea of making a spy service out of a scattershot collection of Wall Street brokers, Ivy League eggheads, soldiers of fortune, ad men, news men, stunt men, second-story men, and con men.
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