Neighbourhood Watch and police information

This particular appeal from Hampshire Constabulary yesterday caught my eye for two particular reasons. Read the appeal first and see why this interests me.

Appeal for information from Hampshire Police

Officers are investigating a burglary which took place at a home on Privett Road in Waterlooville last week where a safe was taken. [Waterlooville is a little north-east of Portsmouth off the A3(M)]

At some point overnight between Sunday, September 4 and the following morning, the safe containing jewellery, including a Brietling Super Ocean watch and a dainty ladies Omega Ladymatic watch, was taken after someone broke in through a window. It's estimated the safe contained more than £10,000 worth of jewellery.

The following day it was discovered that five distinctive bikes had also been stolen from two garages on the same road. Officers are trying to establish whether these thefts are linked to the safe being stolen.

The bikes that were taken from the garages are described as:

• A blue and white Giant Glory downhill bike with a Halo rim on the back wheel.
• A Nukeproof downhill bike fitted with RockShox BoXXer Team suspension forks and a Nukeproof 4911SS headset E Thirteen LG1 chain guide. It also has Shimano Saint brakes, Raceface crank set, Halo rims, and SRAM gearing. This bike was specifically built for the owner and so will be unique with the parts used.
• A white Kona Shred with Hayes Stroker hydraulic disc brakes
• An orange Marin Nail Trail cross country mountain bike with a 17 inch frame. This bike is also fitted with a small specialised seat bag containing a Top Peak multi tool, puncture repair kit, and blue Park tyre levers. The bike has a Top Peak pump fitted, titanium water bottle holder, and a hope front skewer.
• A Whyte Shoreditch hybrid bike fitted with a small specialised seat bag containing a Top Peak multi tool, puncture repair kit, blue Park tyre levers, and a Top Peak pump. 

If you can help Hampshire Police I know they would love to hear from you. Call 101 quoting what appears to be the reference number of the crime: RMS Number: 44160333880. If you would prefer to remain anonymous call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Comment

I would hope that the owners of these bikes will have marked and registered them and let’s keep our fingers crossed too that an honest person is offered these bikes for sale and has the wherewithal to check them out on the various stolen property registers first.  

Unfortunately these police reports/appeals seldom provide enough detail to be helpful to the readers, because in order for us to not become victims ourselves we really do need to know more about the method (MO) used by the thieves and the security arrangements of the victims. For example, were the garages properly locked and if not how did the thieves overcome the security?

And what about that stolen safe? Are we to assume that the safe was free standing and was simply picked up and carried away or was the safe correctly fixed into the ground/wall/both; and if so how did the thieves prise it from its anchoring points?

I think it is very important that the police use the media to put out its appeals, but it is also essential that a lot more information is given to us so that we can learn from the incident and better protect ourselves. This in turn will help us reduce our chances of falling victim to the same MO and is especially important if we live close to the scene of the crimes we’re reading about.

By the way, I’m not singling out Hampshire Police about this, because this is common across all police services. The fact is that these messages are appeals to help the police solve a crime rather than information to help future potential victims. I wish these messages included both elements, but that is the historical nature of policing that has always given greater emphasis to crimes that have already occurred.

I also think that these types of incidents are right up the street for Neighbourhood Watches.  When I was a ‘local beat’ policeman I looked after half-a-dozen Watches. Each day, before staring out on the beat (76 roads) I would check out the previous day’s crimes and if there was anything significant about the MO I would ring up the nearby Watch and bring it to their attention and tell them what they could do to stop it happening to others. This was before the internet and so the Watches used to get the info around by telephone cascading (I think that was the term used).

For example, there was one occasion concerning a spate of burglaries to multi-occupancy houses (houses converted into flats) where the burglar used to break in through the entrance doors but only selected those doors that had a simple nightlatch and electro-magnetic release staple. If he found the door to be loose then he’d slip a piece of plastic (cut from the old white Fairy Liquid bottles) through the jam and knock back the latch (if it was a non auto-deadlocking type, of course). As a consequence of my messaging the Watch concerned, which I emphasise again included advice about what to do, we managed to get a whole lot of people to upgrade their door locks.

A thorough understanding of how a property crime is committed is the key to preventing more and hopefully the example I have given you is still something that is carried on between the police and the Watches today – or is it?