I have been back on deck this week after four successful days last week delivering the Loves Me Not programme to Cambridge High School year 11 and 12 students. Thank you to all parents who consented for their children to take part in what is a very valuable course. The students were engaged and interacted well. No doubt the content also sparked some important conversations at home.
Senior Constable Deb Hann – On the Beat
In good news this week, swift investigation saw the team arrest a male for a retail burglary last week. He was charged and has been remanded in custody pending a further court appearance.
Burglars are opportunists and one person or group is often responsible for multiple incidents in an area, continuing until caught. In the seven days prior to writing, we had four recorded burglaries in Cambridge.
Anytime a burglary occurs, Police will attend to carry out a scene examination (including vehicles being stolen from on private property which meets the requirements of a burglary). We will take a statement from the occupant, take photographs of the scene and conducting enquiries in the immediate area for information and CCTV.
Where forensic opportunities exist, a scene of crime officer will attend in order to take fingerprints, swabs (if appropriate) and photographs.
CCTV as always is great evidence, especially where footage is of a high resolution, clear and accessible. Please report all burglaries when discovered and preserve evidence including any items left behind by the offender at the scene.
Evidence gained from your scene, could be the vital clue that links together and solves a number of cases and enables us to identify and charge those responsible.
On another topic, I see that people in our community are continuing to fall prey to Facebook Marketplace fraud. The most common scenario, is that a person will advertise an item for sale that doesn’t exist in reality and then request payment online. Once the monies are transferred, the post – and sometimes fake profile used – are deleted from Facebook.
A recent report included an item being advertised for sale where the buyer was told that there was a lot of interest and a 50 per cent deposit was elicited from them to secure the deal. Once this was paid, the post and profile disappeared.
Anyone can create a Facebook marketplace advertisement, using any photo they have, regardless of whether the item is genuine or not. While we hope that most people are trustworthy, if we don’t take some common-sense measures to protect ourselves, we are not only enabling the offending, but encouraging the offenders to continue with the scam.
Pay on pick up and not before, especially where larger or higher value items are involved. As I have had said before in this column, realistically there is always a chance you will lose any money paid online in such a deal.
TradeMe, as an alternative, is a lot more controlled and less exposed to such fraud.
Have a good week and stay safe.
