Burglaries

pettgra

I live in a road near Bexleyheath station. My neighbour across the road had his house turned over in the last couple of weeks and a house at the end of the road was burgled yesterday.
Over the last couple of years there have been a spate of burglaries in the same road, including my neighbour who was burgled twice.
What is chilling is that they are putting stickers on letter boxes to indicate to their mates what properties look like good targets.
They are committing these crimes during the day, especially when it becomes dark.
Rather than scratching our heads thinking what to buy our partners for Xmas; it makes you wonder whether it is worth pooling resources to buy an alarm.
I really am losing faith in human society.

Joshuk87

Mrs lives down in barnehurst and they caught a few the other night with the police helicopter.

O-Randy-Hunt

Joshuk87 said:

Mrs lives down in barnehurst and they caught a few the other night with the police helicopter.

Yea mentioned this in the helicopter thread. I live in barnehurst too. They caught 3 blokes in the end. Im waking at every noise at the moment thinking is that someone trying to get in.

The mrs wont even go and investigate ffs

Brendan_O_Connell

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/10819205.Burglary_scare_inspires_Bexley_Good_Samaritan_to_remove_fake_locksmith_stickers/

pettgra

Joshuk87 said:

Mrs lives down in barnehurst and they caught a few the other night with the police helicopter.

Thats good. I hope the police did not hurt them to much!

Dizzle

My neighbour got burgled a few weeks ago at about 4pm. She pulled onto her drive just as they had gone in through the front window, they jumped out of the window and ran straight past her, jumped into a 13 plate Merc and sped off.

I have removed stickers from my letter box, I have also removed blu tack from over my lock which the police told me were other tricks to show if anybody has been in the property (using the key obviously)

Hopefully after being rumbled they wont be down my road, at least for a while. Whats stupid is after all the effort, scouting houses, putting stickers and blu tack and other tricks they didnt use gloves and the police got a whole load of fingerprints from the window and items on her window sill that they moved in order to get in.

carly burn

It's a well known fact that in times of recession and financial insecurities crime,especially burglaries,increase.
As does the suicide rate. Be careful out there.

smiffyboy

Proper scum bags

Stig

Top seasonal tip, don't put your presents under the tree until the last minute and especially not where it can be seen from a window. It'll be a scumbag magnet.

eaststandmike

I was fortunate enough to move out of the Bexleyheath area 4 years ago, my reasons were for all of the above plus a few more. I had lived in the area for 30 years up to that point but the decline in the last 5 years before I moved was alarming.

newyorkaddick

This isn't much comfort for anyone directly affected, but burglary is becoming a rarer crime simply because there is less worth stealing (mainly due to massive price deflation in electronics/gadgets).

The most important thing is to keep your car keys well out of sight as they remain an easy and valuable target.

jac52

One of the worst crimes imo. Got burgaled few years back whilst I was in the house on a day off. Bloke comes into my room and shat his pants and legged it. They crowbarred in the back as well so lucky they didn't fancy using it on my face. Police couldn't find any prints either. Defo get an alarm if you're worried

Rizzo

Lady that I come to the footy with lives in the next road down from us (in Welling) and has been burgled twice in the last few years. The first time they were lucky in that a neighbour spotted someone in the house when they knew it should have been empty and phoned the owners who were able to get a friend to go round there. When the friend (a fellow Charlton fan btw) arrived he was able to catch the burglar red-handed and also 'accidentally' knocked seven buckets of crap out of the little scumbag.

Sadly the second time it happened it was only discovered after the event and the loss of all their jewellery. Only now have they decided to put an alarm in!

JohnBoyUK

When I was married, we got burgled in Singlewell, Gravesend while we were asleep upstairs. My daughter was only a year old at the time. They took everything of any value downstairs and drove off in my ex-wife's car.

Was a bit of a shock to come downstairs to find the front door left wide open and everything gone. We was just thankful that we didnt wake up as god knows what could have happened then.

It turns out the bloke who done it also done another house at the end of the road the same night. Because of the sensors around town, they knew the car hadnt left Gravesend and they located it quite quickly on the Kings Farm estate, behind the garage of the guy who nicked it!

Alarm was installed the week after and I always sleep with my cricket bat under the bed now, just in case.

Mendonca In Asdas

JohnBoyUK said:

When I was married, we got burgled in Singlewell, Gravesend while we were asleep upstairs. My daughter was only a year old at the time. They took everything of any value downstairs and drove off in my ex-wife's car.

Was a bit of a shock to come downstairs to find the front door left wide open and everything gone. We was just thankful that we didnt wake up as god knows what could have happened then.

It turns out the bloke who done it also done another house at the end of the road the same night. Because of the sensors around town, they knew the car hadnt left Gravesend and they located it quite quickly on the Kings Farm estate, behind the garage of the guy who nicked it!

Alarm was installed the week after and I always sleep with my cricket bat under the bed now, just in case.

John same thing happened to us , really unsettled us still have nightmares about it, don't blame you about the cricket bat , people don't seem to care about the long term damage they cause.

JT

Seems to be a massive increase in burlgary's / muggings / theft around here recently.

RedChaser

Feels like we are being mugged off by TJ & co at the moment :-(

eaststandmike

JT said:

Seems to be a massive increase in burlgary's / muggings / theft around here recently.

Where is that JT?

charltonkeston

Stig said:

Top seasonal tip, don't put your presents under the tree until the last minute and especially not where it can be seen from a window. It'll be a scumbag magnet.

Better top tip, make your home less inviting than your neighbours.
Fit an alarm, CCTV (in a clearly visible place), door and window locks.

JiMMy 85

carly burn said:

It's a well known fact that in times of recession and financial insecurities crime,especially burglaries,increase.
As does the suicide rate. Be careful out there.

Daily Mail post of the week?

O-Randy-Hunt

I know people who have been asleep while being broken into. I couldn't think of anything worse than waking up to hear people in my house.

Id shit it big time but I hope id have the bollocks to wrap my baseball bat around there bonce.

mrbligh

Get a dog, job done

McBobbin

A few houses down my road got turned over. Make sure I double lock the doors before I go to bed.

AddickUpNorth

There was a spate of burglaries round my way a few weeks ago, turned out to be a couple of junkies who were new to the area. Both locked up on remand now but not before one got dealt some good old community justice. Not condoning such action but...................

bexleyaddick

mrbligh said:

Get a dog, job done

This. most burglars are cowards and won't risk getting mauled, if they see a dog or signs of one they'll look elsewhere. My hound may often stink and be a general pain in the arse but the second there's anyone sniffing around anywhere near my place he lets me know, better than any Burglar alarm imo.

eaststandmike

bexleyaddick said:

mrbligh said:

Get a dog, job done

This. most burglars are cowards and won't risk getting mauled, if they see a dog or signs of one they'll look elsewhere. My hound may often stink and be a general pain in the arse but the second there's anyone sniffing around anywhere near my place he lets me know, better than any Burglar alarm imo.

What do you do when you go on holiday, leave the dog in the house on his own? The house is most at risk when it is empty i.e. people at work or on holiday.

man_at_milletts

I'm not sure who takes any notice of alarms any more, often hear them going off in New Eltham, but nobody seems to care.

I've just been playing with some wireless IP cameras in the house. £30 each on Fleabay. The motion detection can shoot an image to you on email, up to a website or onto an SD card, and I can even control the pan and tilt from my mobile or ipad while I'm at work, or remote pc on the same network. At least it gives you a chance of getting a mugshot, providing there's no masks of course.

Lincsaddick

The problem is with the courts and their lenience. A mandatory minimum of five years in prison for anyone found guilty of burglary, first offence or not, would act as a serious deterrent to these uncaring, unwashed, probably illiterate toe rags who choose to break into the houses of hard working folk and steal property which may be treasured and have taken a long time to work & pay for

guinnessaddick

Fitted a visonic alarm recently, wireless and pet (dog) friendly. Set it up to text me when it goes off. So I receive a text whilst I was in Vienna over the weekend, my brother was staying looking after the dog. He came in from the pub and forgot about the alarm.

Should have gone for the camera pir so you cann see what's happening. Might get one, can also add a smoke alarm into it.

Also having a porch door helps, as it doubles the effort required to get through.

http://www.visonic.com/visonic-uk

Rizzo

man_at_milletts said:

I'm not sure who takes any notice of alarms any more, often hear them going off in New Eltham, but nobody seems to care.

The alarm is a deterrent. Given the choice between a house with an alarm and one without, the average burglar will go for the one without.

bexleyaddick

eaststandmike said:

bexleyaddick said:

mrbligh said:

Get a dog, job done

This. most burglars are cowards and won't risk getting mauled, if they see a dog or signs of one they'll look elsewhere. My hound may often stink and be a general pain in the arse but the second there's anyone sniffing around anywhere near my place he lets me know, better than any Burglar alarm imo.

What do you do when you go on holiday, leave the dog in the house on his own? The house is most at risk when it is empty i.e. people at work or on holiday.

Not strictly true Mike, yes they will look to target an empty house, especially at this time of year when they are expecting pressies etc to be present. But in recent years a significant proportion of Burglaries are occurring at night when the occupants are in because the thieving scum are targeting cars, any small electrical items/ jewellery are ancillary to the bigger picture, nice cars for which people leave the keys nice and conveniently located and which are very profitable.

Obviously there are times when we are out and the dog is alone but most Burglars would not risk entering a house where they can hear a dog barking or see evidence of dogs being present. Sadly, alarms alone are not a huge deterrent because who takes any notice of them these days? And the Police, by and large, won't even attend a call to a house alarm sounding unless there is other evidence of a break in.

I do have an alarm because I believe you should have as many deterrents as possible but my dog gives me greater comfort in that he lets me know as soon as someone comes near the house. Obviously the dog isn't present when we go away but at those times I try to let as few people as possible know I'm going, am lucky in that I have good, trusted neighbours who keep an eye out and that is when I do have to rely on locks, alarm and other deterrents, one of which is to leave the dogs bowl visible by the back door.

Obviously no deterrent will stop a determined Burglar but if you make it as difficult and risky as possible for them to enter your property the more likely they are to go for a softer target.