ajar 復習

在宅を装い犯行に及んでいたようです。

Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 33-year-old male who robbed more than 100 residences in order to pay for visits to sex parlors, reports TV Asahi (Aug. 25).

On August 2, Hirotaka Sugawara, a janitor, used a screwdriver to remove a glass door of a residence in Adachi Ward and steal 240,000 yen in cash and five Rolex wristwatches valued at 1.5 million yen.
Since February, the suspect is believed to have been behind more than 130 similar robberies in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture in which the value of lost property totals 33 million yen.

"I used the money for fuzoku," the suspect is quoted by police in referring to the commercial sex industry.

Sugawara used his father's electric vehicle to commit the crimes. While ransacking the properties, the suspect left the front door ajar and ran water in the bathtub to make it seems as if the residents were at home, according to Nippon News Network (Aug. 25).

http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/113500.php#sthash.jeEaPzMl.dpuf

とりあげる表現は“ajar”です。『Wisdom英和辞典第３版』（三省堂）によると、「ajar：（ドアが）少し開いて」（a door that is ajar is slightly open -- LDOCE）とありました。つまり、“leave the front door ajar”は「玄関を少し開けておいて」と解釈ができます。
“ajar”は「（車の）半ドア」を意味する専門用語でもあり、“The door is left ajar.”というふうに使用されます。しかし、口語では通常使われないため、一般的には“half-open”や“half-shut”といった表現が用いられるようです。（スーパーアンカー和英辞典）(Chris)