Crime: 8 February 2013

A REALLY GOOD END TO THE WEEK.

MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:

maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

7/2  Thursday midnight / 6 a.m.  Fotherby Court.  Burglary.  The owner came down in the morning to find the porch internal door open.  There were muddy footprints on the floor and a kitchen window was open.  A laptop was taken from the worktop, a wallet from inside a kitchen cupboard, and a handbag and contents from a hook in the kitchen.  After carrying out a search around the house, the owner found the handbag and papers discarded in an underpass nearby

RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:

maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

6/2  Wednesday 6 a.m. / 4 p.m.  Cordwallis Road.  Garage break – door forced – nothing stolen.

6/2  Wednesday 1.15 p.m. / 1.30 p.m.  Castle Hill.  Attempted Burglary.  Small window at the rear of the property smashed.  It was too small to climb through.  During House to house enquiries a neighbour reported seeing 2 black men acting suspiciously in the front garden.  The garden shed has also been into and the door forced, but nothing appears to have been stolen.

MAIDENHEAD WEST

BISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:

maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

4/2 – 6/2  Monday 7.30 p.m. / Wednesday 6.45 p.m.  Sheepcote Lane.  Expensive York Stone patio pulled up and stolen.  This is the first one in several years !  if you have a stone patio, particularly old stone can you take extra precautions at this time – particularly if someone has been up to your door – door to door sellers and may have seen it.

PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:

maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

7/2  Thursday  9 a.m. / 11 a.m.  Greenleys, Furze Platt.  Garden entered by forced rear garden gate. Copper cylinder stolen.  The copper cylinder had been covered and was hidden from view.

6/2  Wednesday 1 p.m. / 2 p.m.  Green Close.  2 men knocked on the door of a property saying they had been up on the roof and discovered damaged tiles and wanted £3,000 to fix them.  Please assist elderly neighbours and let them know that if someone calls saying this, they should phone you to come and assist !  Dodgy builds con elderly and vulnerable residents out of thousands of pounds every year.

MAIDENHEAD SOUTH

BOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:

maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Neighbourhood Page:

7/2 – 8/2  Thursday 10 p.m. / Friday 8 a.m.  Heywood Court Close, Woodlands Park.  Someone has climbed over a fence causing damage.  No apparent attempt to break into the garden shed.  Had the person done something elsewhere and was fence hopping away ?

OLDFIELD & BRAY:

maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

7/2  Thursday 4 p.m.  Guards Club Road.  A witness saw a man trying to pull the copper piping from the side a of a house.  They went to investigate.  The man said ‘Sorry mate’ and made off on a bike.

7/2  Thursday 1 a.m. / 7.30 a.m.  Greenfields.  The owner of a house was awoken by a neighbour who said they had recovered the owner’s daughters schoolbag at the back of their house along with a blazer and purse.  Someone had reached in through a window left open and removed the bag and blazer.

MEMBERS COMMENTS:

METER READERS:

Can I remind everyone who has an internal meter !

No one, comes into your home, unless you know them, or they have made an appointment !

If you have an electricity / gas meter in your home and someone comes to read the meter – do not bother to check their ID.  The traditional advice, was to phone the utility company, to check they are genuine.  Don’t bother !  The people who read the meters are completely unknown to the utility companies, who employ them.  They are contracted out, via several subsidiary companies, usually to G4S and then down again !  If you phoned the Electricity company about a meter reader, they won’t have a clue who they are, or when they might be in your area.

We had a lady into the police station who was a G4S meter reader.  She was upset that people just let her in without question.  She had at least 2 IDs round her neck, depending upon which meters she was reading – gas / electricity.

She wanted to know why we were not publicising passwords more – passwords are the answer !  I explained we are here, but it is not general and there has not been sufficient advertising of this service by the companies concerned !!!

There is no point in checking IDs – you don’t know what they should look like and, realistic fake IDs are freely available online, in any format you want anyway, for virtually nothing.

So – the correct advice !  When your next bill arrives, or if you know who they are - phone your service provider and ask to set a password – one you will remember – the meter reader when he rings your doorbell, will inform you that you have set a password and then tell you what it is.  If they don’t know or do either of these things – phone the police immediately.

It could not be simpler nor safer !

I have been sent another scam message that is doing the rounds.  It warns you not to open the message from a certain person as he is a hacker.........If you get one – it has a warning tag line  - just bin it – and do not send it to everyone you know !!!!  Anything which says – send it to everyone you know – SHOULD BE BINNED !

TELEPHONE CALL JAMMERS:

Hi Jeff,

I have just read this: One of our largest telephone companies, has started producing a landline phone which will allow customers to block up to 80pc of unwanted calls, whether they are offering claims against banks which have mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance or services like window cleaning.

The handset, retails at under £50, will be a particular help to elderly customers, who tend to be targeted by cold-calling salesmen. It will enable them to block all calls from international numbers or numbers that are withheld, as well as 10 additional numbers specified by the user. This will block four fifths of unwanted calls.

Customers will also be able to activate a “do not disturb” mode on the new landline handset, for those occasions when they do not any disturbance at all.

The company said it introduced the scheme after being bombarded with complaints from customers being harassed by nuisance calls. The company receives more than 50,000 calls a month to its advice line, specifically set up to deal with the issue, and has found that more than half of people affected by unwanted calls, receive more than five a month.

It also features a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode that means only numbers from a specifically approved list, get through. Blocked calls are sent straight to the answering machine. Parents can also set controls to block outgoing calls to certain types of numbers.

The company said: “We know from talking to our customers that nuisance calls cause huge frustration and even anxiety at times. When people feel as though they are being harassed in their own homes they need to be able to take action and block the offending callers.”

Silent calls, caused when businesses generate a large volume of outgoing calls, but only have the manpower to have a smaller number of conversations, generate nearly 4,400 complaints to communications regulator Ofcom each month. Of those who receive silent calls, 57 per cent say they receive five or more calls a month.

Ofcom also found that 71 per cent of people have received live marketing calls on their fixed-line phone in the past six months. Older consumers are more likely to have been affected; with four in five people aged between 65 and 74 reporting that they receive such calls.

Consumer Technology Editor

Andrew & Liz – Great minds think alike !

RE CAR JAMMERS:

Hi Jeff,
With regards to the car fob jammers, I was wondering if this was also linked:
Yesterday evening, I was parked at Windsor Library. When I returned to my still locked car, I couldn't unlock it with my key fob, no matter how many times I pressed the fob.
I opened the car door with the actual key which set the alarm off and after several more presses of the fob, I eventually stopped the alarm.
The fob has been working perfectly well today, so I doubt its a weak battery - I'm just a bit baffled and wondered if there was a key jammer on the area?!
Many thanks,
Farzana

My response:

That sounds exactly like it.  It has happened to me several times in my road.  The problem is – if you have to lock the car with the key, you may not activate the alarm and immobiliser !!!

It may of course not be intentional, someone may have been operating their car fob / TV remote / up and over garage door in the vicinity !!!

Just be aware and if this happens to you, have a good look around.  If you see anyone hanging around suspiciously – they needn’t be facing in your direction, phone the police on the non emergency number 101.  On the briefing sheets they now have pictures of the sort of jammers being used.  They could chat to someone standing around and perhaps see if they have such a gadget on them.