Its been a busy shift for your local Rurals policing team, with multiple arrests, missing people and car key burglaries. 

It’s the latter that I want to use this weeks WM now to cover; preventing vehicle thefts and how you can best help us in finding stolen vehicles.

We’ve seen a rise in car key burglaries in and around the Rurals in which offenders break into a house with the sole intent on dealing vehicle keys before making off with the vehicle. Offenders will often target uPVC doors breaking off the handles before snapping and removing the lock barrels before gaining entry.  We always recommend getting anti snap locks installed on uPVC doors especially on rear patio doors, thieves will still damage the lock but the anti-snap will stop the barrel from being broken at its weakest point and stop them from gaining entry. A Pat-Lock is also an excellent choice for patios that have double doors as it’s designed to secure to the inside handles of both doors to prevent them opening outward.  If your vehicle also anti-theft in the form of something like a steering/pedal lock then we’d also advise not keeping the keys to it on the same ring as the vehicle’s keys.

You can also help is with recovering stolen vehicles as well by simply being observant of what cars are on your street.  With cars becoming more and more technologically advanced thieves will often steal them and then hide them on quiet streets in case the vehicle has a built in or aftermarket tracker fitted, they will then return to the vehicle several days later to see if it’s still there to secure their ill-gotten gain.  As residents we all become accustomed to which vehicles our neighbours are driving plus the streets around our homes and where people like to park. You may notice a vehicle that’s been poorly parked and out of place, perhaps on a kerbside where no one would ordinarily park if they lived in the area, it could simply be someone visiting a friend or a family member, or it could be stolen; especially if the vehicle has been parked there for several nights.  The vehicle may also be out of place for the area such as an Aston Martin parked haphazardly in a loading bay behind a business at 10 o’clock on the night, if you suspect a vehicle may be stolen then please call us on 101 with the vehicles registration plate and why you suspect it to be stolen, it takes seconds for us to check a vehicle on the Police national database to see if it’s been reported as stolen and your call could make all the difference in helping someone getting their car back.