22
May
2014
By Calvin at 14:41 GMT, 12 years ago
Last Saturday, 17th May, between midnight and 7 am there were thirteen thefts from insecure vehicles in the Hillcrest and Valley Park areas of Whitehaven.
Items stolen included mobile phones, purses, CD’s and Sat Navs.
The police believe that these crimes were committed by opportunistic thieves wandering the streets, looking for insecure cars by trying the door handles.
Police are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area to get in touch. Local residents may have seen something that could help officers to identify the people responsible.
Crime Prevention Officer Terry O’Connell said: “This spate of incidents highlights how people cannot be complacent with security. Members of the public will see warnings from the police when incidents like these occur and will be more vigilant. However, it is important that they don’t forget and continue to lock their car or any other vehicle at night. It needs to be something that is second nature and then it will reduce the number of opportunities for thieves.”
If anyone has any information please contact the Cumbria Police on 101 and speak to PCSO Colette Harrison or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111
TCPW Comment:
These are the sorts of incidents that make grown –up police officers everywhere weep!
I’ve said elsewhere on this website that although we should be able to leave our car and house doors wide open and not expect people to steal from us this would be like living in Fairy-Dairy Land.
When I was a young cop I would often listen to elderly people telling me how they used to leave their doors and windows open when they were young and were never bothered by crooks and how much worse things have become. What they didn’t realise is that ‘back in the old days’ they didn’t have so much in their homes to steal and there weren’t so many cars to steal from!
Failing to check the car is empty of valuable property and that it’s been secured properly is failing to be responsible to a very important person - you.
There are enough crimes against people who do all the right things, so we only have ourselves to blame when, knowing what we do, we ‘allow’ easy crimes to take place. The consequences are numerous: Crime rates go up; the police have more on their already full plates; the cost of policing increases; more people end up in court and the costly prisons continue to fill up. I could go on...
The police are there to do what they can to prevent crime and also to help us when things go wrong, but it’s our responsibility to listen to the advice and do all we can to prevent ourselves becoming victims. Let’s do our bit to stop the unnecessary crimes.
I shall now go and have one of my lie-downs! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
