We have dealt with your perimeter to your front door, in Part I and at the rear of your home, in Part II
First: Who, is carrying out burglaries in RBWM ?
We have no ‘Burglars’ in RBWM. What we have, are ‘Opportunist Thieves’.
Burglars, specifically target someone, for items they know, to be in the house. You will not therefore be targeted, unless you have collections, of valuable porcelain, paintings, clocks, watches, antiques, jewellery. A ‘Burglar’, can bypass alarms, but will target you, for one or two, of the most valuable items. They will already have a buyer, for whatever it is, they steal.
The rest of us, will be targeted, by an ‘Opportunist Thief’. That gives us, an advantage. If we have an alarm, which we set, (dummy box if not), well polished door locks and obvious evidence, of good security - and we don’t make a mistake - (leaving a rear door unlocked, a window open, a pile of post visible through a glass door, bins left out on bin-day after the collection has taken place etc.) it is very unlikely, we will be targeted. Opportunist Thieves always look for the easiest option and it doesn’t take a lot, to dissuade them, so that they move on, looking for an easier target. Whenever you leave your house, take a quick look back - does it all ‘look’ secure, have you left something, which might indicate it is an easy target ?
If it is dark, have you left lights on ? Which lights ? On a night your house is occupied - go outside and take a look. That is how your house must look, whenever it is dark, plus a Fake TV, on in an upstairs front facing room and a radio left on a talk radio station. If they lift and listen through the letterbox, they can hear voices.
Generally, if we don’t make a mistake, we will be safe. It is amazing how often I hear - ‘That was the first time they had ever………….. and that was the day, they were burgled !
NEXT: I will deal with Climbers:
Burglaries involving climbing, are really rare - unless - they can see an upper window, left open beside a flat roof extension / garage / porch. Our offenders are generally, small and agile. If you leave a small transom window open for ventilation, they can climb through. If you do leave windows open for ventilation, take a look from the outside. Is that open window, visible from the pavement / road ? Could someone climb up and get through ?
Part III - Once inside:
Once inside, an Opportunist Thief, will only be in your house, for a maximum of 5 minutes.
The first minute, is spent finding a way out, in case you return. If they came in through a broken window, they will be looking for keys left in doors / cupboards, to open a door, preferably a back door / patio door, to be able to get out quickly.
If they climbed in through a smashed window, we want them to have to climb back out, through that window at speed, increasing the chances they will cut themselves and we will have blood to analyse for DNA. That is why they are looking for keys.
If you have a wooden front door, they will put on the door chain. If you return, you won’t be able to get in. You will be confused and rattle the door, wondering how you put the door chain on. That is enough notice for the Opportunist, to leave immediately. If you come back, they never stay, but always make off immediately.
Once they have established a quick exit, they start to search. The Opportunist will never have been inside your house before. They start, upstairs, with the master Bedroom, upstairs.
They begin with any jewellery boxes on dressing tables and whatever, is inside the bedside cabinets.
They remove a pillow case from the bed and just start putting things inside. It is rare for them to search through jewellery, they don’t have time, unless they know the owner will not return, in which case, they tip it out onto the bed and search through, for the most valuable, real looking items.
As a result, nothing of value, must be left in either of these places. You know your house best and where you could hide something, which would take the Opportunist, more than 5 minutes to find.
You may have a loose floorboard under a rug, a kickboard in the kitchen which can be removed, something only you know about. My aunt, had full length curtains in her living room and attached a pocket, made of the same lining material to the back and dropped her jewellery in that. No-one would every have found it.
If you do hide your jewellery / valuables, you must tell someone you trust, in case something happens to you ! AND - you must remember where you have hidden it !!!!
Next, they will check out wardrobes and suitcases, on top. Many people, have had safes built into the base of wardrobes, as the depth is suitable, to take a safe. Thieves know this. A safe, is only as secure and the material into which it is set. Wardrobes, are generally made of MDF and safes, can be levered out. If you have a safe, it must be properly imbedded - and no-one, must know you have one.
We have had leather jackets, designer clothes and shoes stolen as well as valuable perfumes / after shaves.
Asian 22 / 24 carat gold wedding jewellery, is a real problem. Generally it is only removed from banks and kept in the house, when there is a wedding or other big event. These are usually well publicised so people know it will be there. Houses, are not built to have such items inside, securely. If it is in the home for a few days, it must be really well secured.
Chests of drawers, will be searched. The opportunist starts with the bottom drawers first and throws the contents across the room. Underwear and clothes will float across the room, jewellery, watches, money and valuables, will make a noise, separate out and be easily found. Always remember - the thief is not cleaning up and doesn’t care how much mess they make, their only priority, is speed.
Separate out your jewellery. Keep to hand, what you wear all the time. Costume jewellery can be left out. Rarely worn valuable items and most importantly, sentimental items, must be well secured. As a general rule, you will never get it back if it is stolen. Sentimental items, may have little financial value and cannot be replaced, under insurance. It is often the little value sentimental items, something inherited, given by your children, which causes most concern, as it can never be replaced and financial Insurance compensation, cannot compensate you for the loss.
Hide those items, most carefully. We generally recommend storing it in the loft, as you don’t need to access it frequently. In the last year, we have only had about 1 burglary, where the thief accessed the loft. It is a dangerous place for a thief. If you return, they are trapped.
I have mentioned several times - if you have valuable watches, these must not be stored, in their presentation boxes, with instructions and receipts. With these things, they can easily be sold to reputable dealers who will give them a good price. Rolexes and other valuable watches, have much less value, if you don’t have the box and it increases the chances that it is stolen. We record all stolen valuable watches, with the ‘Safer Gems’ newsletter, which is circulated to all jewellers.
Photographs of jewellery / watches. A photo of you, at an anniversary dinner, wearing your jewellery, is not sufficient. If we recover jewellery, you will have to prove, the items belong to you. Think about how you would identify your solitaire diamond engagement ring, from the thousands of others out there. You can easily photograph your jewellery, with your mobile phone and email the pictures to yourself and keep them in your inbox. Take a photo from above, looking down on the item. 18ct rings for example, do not stay round for very long, as the gold is so soft. Take off your rings and look. That shape could, if overlaid against a recovered ring, help identify it as yours. Details of the hallmark helps - that gives the year of manufacture and gold content. Look at the claws. If you wear rings together for any length of time, one side generally shows evidence of wear / scratches- photograph that unique damage, it will be unique, to your item
If you have ever had any item cleaned, or valued by a jeweller that would help. You may not be aware that generally, jewellers photograph most items, when you take them in. It is to protect themselves, in case when they give it back, they say it has been scratched / damaged. They have the photos to show the condition, when it was brought in. If watches are repaired, jewellers sometimes mark the inside of the back cover. So - if you have had your jewellery in a jewellers, ask them, in case they have this detail and good photographs / descriptions, of your items.
Think about photographing other valuables, at the same time - it only takes a few minutes. Make a ‘set up’ and do everything that is valuable and might possibly be stolen. This would be really useful, in the case of a burglary - but fires happen and then listing valuable items and proving value, can be a nightmare.
Think about a short video on your camera, of all your contents. Start from your front door and do a video walk through, of all rooms. It can help after a burglary, as it can sometimes take months, to establish exactly what was taken. In the case of a fire, it can also be invaluable.
NEXT Bedroom. If you have children, it will be their bedrooms next. They will have Xboxes, play stations, laptops, video / computer games etc.
Then the thief will start downstairs - having only a few minutes left. If you have an airing cupboard, the thief will pull everything out, as people hide items between the towels / sheets.
The Ground Floor: The first room targeted, will be the kitchen. Thieves will empty out all the kitchen cupboards, swiping everything across the room. Imagine the mess. They will be looking for tins containing cash / keys. Fridges and freezers, will be emptied, as people hide jewellery, amongst the frozen peas.
Decorative Boxes on kitchen walls to hold keys !! These must be removed immediately. Particularly, if they contain labelled Neighbours’ keys - ‘Mr. Smith at No. 5’, ‘Mrs Jones at No.27’, ‘front door’, ‘back door’, ‘spare car keys’ etc.. All keys, must be hidden, where it will take the thief, more than 5 minutes to find.
Car keys, must be particularly protected, particularly spare car keys. If the thief finds these, they are likely to take those and your car on the driveway. They will also, be able to load larger items into the car and drive it away.
If the car is not there, having the spare keys, they could return to steal it. You will have to have the keys changed, to prevent this. That is an expensive business.
NEXT Room. Is your study, or the place you keep paperwork. They want - cheque books, pension books, building society / credit card / bank account, statements - passports - anything that can provide evidence, to copy and steal your identity. These items are really difficult to hide, as often there is a lot of it and it is bulky. Perhaps, there is a way of storing and hiding it, in a garage / basement / loft.
Old documentation: It is not always necessary to shred it, when disposing of it, but it must be torn into pieces, to prevent anyone using those documents, to create bank accounts and other fraudulent transactions.
The Opportunist Thief, will not be doing this, but they will know someone, willing to buy these items from them. Identity theft is massive. Don’t make it easy.
Last room, will be the living / sitting room. Often, people have valuable items on display. They will fill up the pillowcase / or a sports bag, if they have been lucky to find one - with whatever they can pick up.
Often, they will put the items stolen, into a plastic supermarket bag, to keep them dry and hide them, near the property - perhaps in a hedge, or behind those roadside electrical boxes, for collection later. You may have returned and called the police, who will be carrying out an ‘Area Search’, for anyone looking suspicious and the thief cannot be caught with anything on them, which could tie them, to the burglary.
Thieves generally won’t travel to burglaries, in their own cars, they chose to travel around, using public transport. It is safer, to come and go on a bus, where they are unlikely to be searched.
Call the police if you see anything out of the ordinary. You may not know exactly what you have seen, but something, drew your attention. Rely on your instincts, they are there for a purpose, to protect you and our brains, are really good at protecting you. Just go online at the TVP website and fill in an intelligence report - information that we may find useful. We had a case several years ago, where our Area Co-ordinator in Maidenhead, was walking home and a car sped out of a side road. He thought it was so suspicious, he wrote down the index on his hand and when he got home, phoned it through to the police. We looked it up and said thank you, but it didn’t appear suspicious. Several hours later, the owner of a house in that road returned home, found they had been burgled and phoned the police ! We already had the index of a car, which may have been involved - brilliant !
That is how it is supposed to work. You are NHW members wherever you are, not just in your road, thinking about locks and bolts. It is wherever you are and you see something suspicious, ring us !
Please remember, You will not have been watched and personally targeted. You were burgled, because an opportunist thief, walked along your road and you were the easiest target, because you had made a mistake and left a window open, a side access unprotected. Very easy things to rectify. We can all do more, to protect ourselves, but we need to be aware and know what to do first, as a priority
HERE ENDETH THE THIRD LESSON !
Next week, we may deal with Car Crime, our next priority !
You are our eyes and ears
My role as Community Engagement & Resilience Officer, is to make contact with, any community group out there and make presentations, to spread Crime Prevention advice and protect people from crime - and - to build up their ‘Resilience’. To train you, in how not to become a victim of crime. To reduce the number of crimes - and of course therefore- the number of victims.
Anyone who has been a victim of burglary, knows how traumatic it is and how long it takes, to get over it and move on with their lives. You do not want it to happen to you. Following this advice and particularly getting a burglar alarm, will reduce the chances of you being the victim of a burglary, significantly.
MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:
maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk13/9 Thursday 2.20 a.m. Highland Court, Grebe Way. A witness reports a car had been broken into and the locks damaged. Not yet known if anything stolen.
12/9 Wednesday 9.15 a.m. / 11 a.m. Nicholson’s Lane. Locked up bike in a bike rack stolen. A red, Massi Max-1, mountain bike.
12/9 Wednesday 7.30 a.m. / 11.30 a.m. Grenfell Place. Locked up bike in a bike rack stolen. A red & black mountain bike - WITH FRAME NUMBER
RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MAIDENHEAD WEST
maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBISHAM,
COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:
12/9 Wednesday 7.10 p.m. Bisham Court, Bisham. A witness heard a loud noise and looked out to investigate. They saw a white van parked in the garage block. They went outside and saw two men beside a garage, with the door wide open. They immediately jumped into the van and made off. 2 garages entered and searched.1. Nothing stolen. 2. Wine, camping equipment and 4 bikes stolen. 1. A black Claude Butler, boy’s mountain bike. 2. A dark green, Raleigh, mountain bike. 3. A white, Trek, child’s mountain bike. 4. A dark blue, Pendleton, racing bike.
PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
11/9 - 12/9 Tuesday 5 p.m. / Wednesday 8 a.m. Burglary. Courthouse Road. Shed break. Lock forced - nothing appears to have been taken.
11/9 - 12/9 Tuesday 10.30 p.m. / Wednesday 8 a.m. Bath Road. Large cartwheel with seat stolen from outside a house.
MAIDENHEAD SOUTH
maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:
22/8 - 12/9 Powis Close. Burglary. Entry via forced letterbox in the front door. Cash and a laptop stolen.
13/9 - 14/9 Thursday 4.30 p.m. / Friday 7.10 a.m. The Croft. VAN ENTERED BY UNKNOWN MEANS - Tools stolen.
OLDFIELD & BRAY:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
I am afraid the PEC are slow to answer at the moment - hence my recommendation that you let us know using the online reporting system:
https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/
