WHEN nights are long, criminal minds turn to the contents of other people's homes: in London, burglary peaks in winter. But what to steal? Over the past few years, criminal markets have evolved, leading to dramatic changes in burglars' targets.

“Years ago, you'd see a man in a pub selling CDs,” says Eric Phelps, a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. “Not any more.” Indeed, thefts of entertainment products like CDs and DVDs have collapsed in England and Wales, to the point that they are now taken in just 7% of all burglaries in which something is stolen (see chart). They are now targeted no more frequently than are toiletries and cigarettes.

The reason is the falling value of physical media products. The average price of a CD album in Britain fell from £10.77 to £7.32 between 2001 and 2010, according to the BPI, a trade group—almost a halving, in real terms. And the dishonest get their music and films free, via the internet. DVDs are under pressure not just from piracy but also from video-on-demand services.

Computers, on the other hand, are both valuable and increasingly portable: they are now taken more commonly than anything except purses and wallets. Mr Phelps says that gold jewellery has also become more popular as the value of that metal has soared. The high-carat gold favoured by people of Indian descent is especially tempting. That helps to explain why heavily Indian London boroughs like Barnet, Brent and Redbridge suffer an unusually large number of burglaries (another reason is that they are close to fast roads along which burglars can make a swift getaway).