Crime: 2 June 2010This message is dated Friday 4th June for Maidenhead.

Crime is well down by the end of the week - please make sure the trend continues through the weekend. We only have opportunist thieves. They rely on us making a mistake - an opportunity - to commit crime. If we don't leave an opportunity - no crime takes place.

Firstly, I have just been clearing out the Ringmaster message reply box. The Community Messaging software, send emails in groups of 25. Many computer virus protection packages see this as 'batch mail' - SPAM. The software send the message 10 times in an attempt to get through. I can get a bounce back message into that inbox for every one. Out of Office responses also go in there, so by the end of a week it could hold upwards of 10,000 emails. Amongst those, are of course yours to tell me or ask me for something - changes of email addresses etc. It is extremely difficult to find the time to trawl through 10,000 emails to find the most important ones - yours ! If you want to contact me for any purpose, please use my police email address - jeffrey.pick@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk. You can of course use the intel line with pleasure, but that is read by our intelligence teams and the heads of our serious / acquisitive crime departments. I do not want to overlook any communication from you.

Second, Houses and cars left insecure. Enough said. If you are reporting a theft from your car and there is 'unknown means of entry', please specify if you believed you had locked your car. Do thieves have a means of entry without leaving damage that we are unaware of. Over the last few weeks, an awful lot of cars appear to have been parked unlocked. I never leave my car anywhere unlocked, its second nature. We are aware of key signal blockers so, every time you park up - particularly at night, you must try a door handle.

Third, The warm weather. The weather forecast for the weekend is warm - this will mean doors and windows left open for ventilation - particularly at night - an opportunity for crime. If you have to do this, think about attaching some small wind chimes or anything that makes a noise, across windows, or on a string across doors, so that if they are moved or opened further, you can hear it. Thieves will always make off if they are disturbed.

Fourth, sheds and garages. Please ensure these are really secure (hinges secured with coach bolts) and windows 'whited' out. Visually property marking expensive equipment / tools can stop it being stolen, as it has no re-sale value. Perhaps a brief warning on any windows that everything is property marked would help as well. Sit on mowers should be especially protected and chained up when stored.

Five, Scrap metal. This particularly affects houses being renovated or under construction. If you have a house having work done close to you, please keep an eye on it after work hours. If you see vans arriving or people acting suspiciously, take down descriptions and index numbers. Perhaps have a word with the owners to let them know we have a problem and get a telephone number. They will be appreciative. Radiators, boilers, copper piping particularly have been stolen. Architectural items have also been stolen as you have seen from messages. Anyone with visible York stone flags, nice garden statuary etc needs to be especially aware. I have been mentioning lead thefts, again please be especially aware if you know of any property with visual lead flashing.

6, Bike marking. As you have seen, we also have a problem with bikes being stolen. The PCSOs are organising Bike Marking events over the summer and I will publicise them on CM. PCSO Hannah Coughlan is shortly arranging one in Eton. We have 'bike marking strips' which I am happy to send you completely free of charge. It goes around the bottom of the cross bar, so that we always know whe re to look. It is a small yellow label on which you write your postcode and first 3 letters of your house name and a long transparent sticky strip which you wind round and round the cross bar, to protect it. The transparent strip is made of a special plastic which cannot be unwound, but breaks into tiny pieces - it is very difficult to remove. We also supply very bright dayglo pink or orange square stickers, which say 'coded bike' for you to place somewhere very visible on the bike. Just email me at jeffrey.pick@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk letting me know your address and how many you want.

Figures have just been released to us from HQ re the number of messages sent across TVP and the number of people that receive them. In January We sent 69 individual messages which were received by a cumulative total of 105,021 people. February - 41 messages received by 61,684 people. March 56 messages - 60,874 people. It's looking good. Please sign up all your friends, family and work colleagues. The area Commander Supt Tim De Meyer would like as many local residents signed up as possible. The more aware everyone is about local crime problems, the more they can do to avoid being a victim of our opportunist crime !

Crime Prevention Message over !

CRIME:
BISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS & LITTLEWICK GREEN:
2/6 1 a.m. Graham Road X 2. Burglary. Thieves entered via side gate and forced rear window - laptop, briefcase, glasses and waterman fountain pen stolen. Shed break at the house next door - nothing stolen.
1/6 4 p.m. Fifield Lane. Insecure car entered - passport and clothing stolen.
2/6 - 3/6 Rose Cottages, Graham Road. Shed break - nothing stolen.
2/6 - 3/6 Bisham Road. Integral garage broken into - sit on mower stolen !!

BOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:
2/6 Beaumont Close - Car window smashed.

RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
2/6 11 p.m. Ray Pa rk Avenue. A witness saw some men loading lead onto a lorry - 4 m of lead stolen from a rood. They left a lot of forensic evidence behind and we believe we can identify the lorry from the information supplied !
29/4 - 1/6 Belmont Vale. Front index plate stolen. We are at a loss with the number of index plates stolen. We always check ANPR as well as the congestion charge. We almost never get results. We do get some hits on bilkings (theft of petrol at a garage) We have some evidence that the thieves then dump the plates down the drains ! Can everyone keep an eye on the street drains in their area. If you can see index plates - please report them immediately to the Borough for collection. There may well be fingerprints on them.

OLDFIELD & BRAY:
1/5 - 2/6 School, Ascot Road. Lead stolen from the roof.
28/5 - 1/6 Imperial Place, Shoppenhangers Road. Bike stolen.
1/6 - 2/6 Robin Hill. Bike stolen.

PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
28/5 - 2/6 Clarefield Close. Thieves climbed over a garden fence to access a shed - stole a mower and 5 gallon drum of petrol - which all went back over the fence !!
2/6 2 - 3 p.m. Courthouse Road. Car passenger window smashed - SAT NAV stolen.
3/6 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Lincoln Road. Bike stolen.

At this mornings briefing the Inspector from the Priority Crime Team went through all the jobs, to see if there were any patterns - none that we could see. You know your areas well - you live there. Are there any patterns you can see ?

Have a good weekend - enjoy the weather - but please do not provide any opportunities for our thieves to feed their habits !