Police Newsletter

First a message about procrastination – don’t think about doing something – do it now – today – over the Bank Holiday weekend !

Good evening, I had a break-in to my work shed on Monday morning, during the early hours. The hasp and staple lock was forced.

Nothing was stolen, as I have a shed alarm purchased from a DIY store for £10.00, which was worth its gold, which went off.

My advice others ? Install a shed alarm today – it was really simple. I did not report it to the police as nothing was stolen and the police have other more pressing engagements.

I am grateful to Robin for reminding us – we have been hit for shed breaks across the area again. A cheap shed alarm will prevent this and I have attached ‘Mrs. Chalmer’s Top Tip’ again re shed breaks, which has details of shed alarms.

Every crime must be reported to us. We may not be able to attend, but it provides us with information which may form patterns and be vital to other ongoing investigations. At this morning’s briefing we had several ‘isolated’ / one off crimes, which did not appear to match any other offending patterns. If other people are not reporting things – with the best of motives to save us time and effort – as in this case if nothing was stolen – we cannot fit things together. An offender may have been caught later and this was in fact one of his jobs – we don’t know about it and cannot put it to him. Please – we need you to report everything to us on the 101 number please !

26/3 Tuesday 11.30 a.m. Cromwell Road. A sink was put outside while a tiler completed his work. When he went to reclaim it – it had been stolen. Please phone through the details of all flatbeds driving around the area and if possible photograph them on your mobile phone. That way we get a full description of the vehicle, index and any writing down the side. Do not put yourself at risk and be discrete – pretend to be making a call / sending a text.

25/3 Monday 3.40 p.m. St Luke’s Road. Something thrown at a house window causing it to break.

26/3 Tuesday 7 p.m. / 8 p.m. Sutton Road, Cookham. Car parked in the car park had its rear window smashed. LAPTOP, MOBILE PHONE, paperwork, purse and contents including a large number of credit cards and house keys stolen. There was an attempt to use the cards at 9 p.m. in Slough.

25/3 – 26/3 Monday 9 p.m. / Tuesday 2 p.m. The Street, Shurlock Row X 2. 1. Shed break – door forced – nothing stolen, but a lot like this going on in the area. 2. INSECURE car entered and searched – CDs and sunglasses stolen. Another neighbour had their car broken into but did not want to report it.

21/3 – 27/3 Guard’s Club Road. A small hole was found under the car driver’s door lock. The red Rover Kensington was entered and an unsuccessful attempt made to remove the steering column and hotwire the car.

26/3 – 27/3 Tuesday 7 p.m. / Wednesday 8.30 a.m. Oldacres. Gold Fiat Punto broken into and the steering column removed. The wires were exposed ready to hotwire but left intact. Were they disturbed ?

26/3 Tuesday 6.30 p.m. / 9 p.m. Bray Road. The owner of a car had left his LAPTOP on the rear seat. When he returned the rear passenger window had been smashed and the LAPTOP STOLEN. Laptop cables, mouse, USB sticks and some paperwork were found discarded in Braywick Park.

25/3 Monday 1 p.m. / 3.20 p.m. The Croft. Car driver’s window smashed – SAT NAV stolen. The thief was disturbed and made off.

Royal Borough’s community radio digital network expands to include Ascot

The council’s community radio system that helps businesses, police and their partners to fight crime in Maidenhead and Windsor town centers has been expanded to include Ascot High Street.

The Royal Borough has operated a very successful scheme since 1998 and upgraded to digital in 2011. With Ascot High Street now included, from Monday 11 March, the total number of local companies on the scheme is 93 (this figure does not include partner agencies also supporting the scheme).

Installation, management and training are provided in partnership with PMR Products Ltd which runs the SafetyNet scheme.

Cllr Carwyn Cox, cabinet member for environmental services, said: “Going digital has brought many additional opportunities to the borough, making the new scheme more efficient and user friendly. The police and community wardens are already using the system and have had very positive feedback.

“The addition of Ascot pubs and businesses will further enhance the CCTV control room’s capability to detect and record problems faster through early intelligence opportunities.

“The community radio users who link into the control room are a key part of the fight against crime and making public spaces safer for all.

“I would encourage shops, pubs, clubs and other businesses which haven’t yet signed up to consider taking up the scheme so we can continue offering a proactive service and build on our successful past.”

Sgt Colin Pike, of the Ascot Neighbourhood Team, said: “The community radios provide a great opportunity to work with our partners in the retail business to tackle crime and keep Ascot safe.

“We have had some great response from the local businesses on the High Street which are going to take part in this scheme.

“The aim is for business to be able to provide real time intelligence for the CCTV control room, which can then be picked up by Thames Valley Police and acted upon.

An initiative to help keep the Royal Borough’s many parks and open spaces clean and pleasant for all to enjoy launches on Monday 8 April at Ockwells Park, Maidenhead.

The scheme, called ‘Guardians of Parks and Open Spaces’, was the brainchild of community warden Trish Canziani, and encourages residents to report incidents of dog mess, graffiti or anything they feel needs action.

Cards with a distinctive logo have been produced which include relevant numbers including the community wardens, Braywick Nature Centre and Thames Valley Police. Community wardens will keep supplies and hand them out when they are on patrol. This latest scheme complements the community wardens’ role as park rangers which they have undertaken since January 2011.

Cllr Carwyn Cox, cabinet member with responsibility for community safety, said: “Once again a community warden has shown initiative and developed another service which will benefit residents and visitors.

“We are very fortunate to have so many great parks in the Royal Borough, many of which consistently receive Green Flag status, clearly demonstrating that borough parks are of a very high standard in terms of facilities. I am delighted that we are inviting the community to work in partnership with us to ensure the parks remain an asset for all to enjoy.”

Brian Martin, community safety manager, said: “I encourage residents to join this new scheme. We all want to see our parks and open spaces totally free of litter, dog mess and graffiti and this scheme will help us move closer to achieving this goal. I’d like to see lots of residents signing up.”

Whenever you receive a call from a stranger asking for you by name, 'the bill payer' or similar, just reply - "hang on, I'll get him/her" and park the phone on hold whilst you go back to watching Emmerdale . I've had them waiting for more than 20 minutes before they hang up and go away. At least they're not bothering anyone else in that time.

I wanted to bring to your attention a scam email, my boyfriend received yesterday. It appears pretty convincing upon first glance. However, upon further inspection, it is clearly a scam - odd email address from the sender, no mention of a name, spelling mistakes, the use of GBP and not the £ symbol, and then a link asking you to open a complaint, if you did not authorise the charge.

I wanted to bring it to your readers’ attention as they, their friends, or their children/grandchildren may have PayPal accounts, for online purchases. PayPal accounts, are often a requirement for use through eBay.

I pay a monthly subscription through PayPal, for a music download service and all emails I receive from them have my full name, an invoice ID (within the body of the email) and a raft of information beyond the main body of the email (questions via help centre, do not reply to this email etc.).

Description	Unit price	Qty	Amount
3 month subscription	39.00 GBP	1	39.00 GBP

NEXT ONE – THE SCREENSAVER THAT APPEARS FROM THE POLICE TO SAY THE COMPUTER HAS BEEN LOCKEDAS IT HAS BEEN USED TO ACCESS ILLEGAL SITES:

I have just been scammed by a virus, which says it is the British National Police - Cheshire Constabulary. I was browsing holiday sites and my computer locked up and displayed a screensaver from them. It said I was looking at prohibited sites, and they wanted me to pay by UKASH or PAYPOINT £100 to unlock computer.

I phoned the Maidenhead Police and they said it was a scam. I phoned my service provider - who were useless.

I got an engineer in this morning and it took him 2 hours to clear it and unlock my computer. So beware don't send any money – but you cannot get rid of it without help !

Yesterday my wife was reversing out of a parking space in a supermarket in Thatcham, when she heard a thud. She was immediately shaken, stopped the car, got out and went to the back where she found a man on the floor, clutching his leg and showing a pained look on his face. At that moment, another car park user, started shouting at the injured man because he had witnessed him walking into the back of my wife's car on purpose.

The victim got up and skulked away. My wife and her saviour, were then joined by another woman and the Supermarket manager - some one else had rushed into the shop to call an ambulance. It seems that the other woman, had suffered the same scenario as my wife, but in her case, she discovered that £300 had been taken by an accomplice from here car, whilst she was tending to the injured man.

It seems that the scam is being used in this area. Can you inform my fellow councillors and also pass this onto our Wardens, who may wish to put a higher profile for a few weeks.

Just received an email (It was in my SPAM) from UPS, telling me my parcel is ready for pick up. It also contains a zip code reference number, they hope I'll download !. It looks fairly genuine. I'm not expecting a package from anyone, so I wasn’t fooled, but some people may be fooled.

The "Confidentiality Notice" indicates I'm violating federal law by copying and sending it to you... I'm shaking in me boots!

There were some people out and about in Cox Green last Sunday delivering advertising material and freebie newspapers. They were leaving these hanging out of the letter box cover on many of our properties, instead of pushing them through. This signals to potential house breakers that the property is unoccupied, if after a period of time, the items are not taken in.

If people really have to deliver unsolicited material, they really must be made aware of this elementary and important precaution.

I absolutely agree and it is the same on Bin Collection days – if you bin is still out left untidily on the pavement – you are not at home – or you would have collected it. Yellow pages and other deliveries thrown onto doorsteps – if they are still there by 11 a.m. – you are at work and the house is empty !

That is part of what we do as members of NHW. We push these items through letterboxes, bull bins back onto driveways neatly, pick up deliveries from doorsteps etc. That way, we make ourselves safer, as well as our neighbours ! If this does happen, just let me know the name of the company / newspaper and I will follow it up.