We had a wee hot spot of car crime in the Williams, Clare and Vogel streets last weekend and two burglaries in the last week elsewhere in Cambridge.
One offender or group of offenders can be responsible for a number of individual crimes, especially when it comes to dishonesty offending. It is important to ensure that if you do fall victim to such crime, you report it so that we can link potentially associated crimes together and gather the combined evidence to help our investigation.
Senior Constable Deb Hann – On the Beat
If your car is stolen, police will ask for permission to tow it when located. While I understand that for those who do not have insurance, this will incur additional costs for them, it is normally covered under insurance.
Towing for a forensic examination is key in enabling us to find evidence of those responsible to be able to hold them to account. I strongly encouraging given authorisation for us to tow it when making the stolen vehicle report accordingly.
Talking about dishonesty offending, school holidays are again upon us for the next two weeks. Time again to ensure opportunists don’t have the attractant, opportunity or means to steal from you.
If you are heading away for a winter break, my usual crime prevention tips apply. Lock your houses and any garages or shedding. It can be beneficial to create an illusion of occupation, through having a neighbour park their car in your driveway, have someone clear your mailbox, check on your house and if feeding pets, open and close curtains at usual times. CCTV is good to have in place, with most systems allowing easy access to view your cameras via an application on your phone. This enables you to call police if you observe any unauthorised people on your property and provide real-time updates on their actions and locations.
Winter poses additional risks when it comes to road travel with wet, icy and foggy conditions a real possibility. Ensure your tyres have good tread and your car is up to warrant of fitness standard, with head and fog lights working correctly. Remember that the auto setting on car headlights is based around light and darkness, and does not react to fog or other poor visibility scenarios.
As the slogan says, be safe, be seen, so turn those headlights on to manual. Always drive to the conditions and keep to the speed limit. It is better to arrive alive – patience and planning your trip is key.
