Beware your car... Post Reply

[firsttimerSW11]

Going to work at 6.15am, other half noticed a pair of men checking the doors of every car on a street BTC. it probably happens all the time but I'd just urge people to be vigilant and double check your doors.

[walesdavies]

Yes, I think this happened to me! But luckily we don't keep anything valuable in car.... although I have been know to leave my phone / purse / house keys in there on the odd occasion so am counting myself lucky!

[Pud1]

Happened to me too. Nothing valuable in my car but they did take my phone charger, sun glasses (very cheep ones) and a £1 coin!

[atbattersea]

Going to work at 6.15am, other half noticed a pair of men checking the doors of every car on a street BTC. it probably happens all the time but I'd just urge people to be vigilant and double check your doors.

Did you call the police?

[atbattersea]

Unfortunately this is common
Almost without fail
If our car is left unlocked - someone has been through the car
They know every compartment and leave it all open
Nothing to steel in our car apart from car seats ..

I know there are plenty more serious crimes but why can't the local police just wander the local streets and catch these guys ?

Because that would cost more money, and probably not catch anyone. The police rely upon you reporting suspicious activity when you see it.

[Bluebird27]

Yup, this happened to us just last week actually!
Noticed our car had been ransacked one morning on the way to work. All the compartments had been dumped out on the seats and they took all of our pound coins and some scented lotion and perfume spray I had left in the door pocket (strange I know).
They managed to find a pair of house keys (which I thought I had lost), but left them on the passenger seat - That gave me a fright to think they could have entered my house in the middle of the night! Scary stuff!

[MPSBatterseaSgt]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for posting. I'd just like to point out a few things:

1) If you see behaviour of the type that fristtimer talks about, call the police. The circumstances do appear to describe at least an attempted crime in progress. Our guidance on when to call 999 is here.

2) Our personal experience tells us that for one reason or another about 1 in 20 cars are left unlocked in the street. So, please just do take the time to double check that your car is locked when you leave it. Our vehicle crime prevention advice is here.

3) Unless there is an exceptional circumstance, there usually are "more important crimes" than most other crimes but that's not how we at Safer Neighbourhoods approach things. We are your Safer Neighbourhoods Teams, so the crimes that are important to you are important to us. We do "task" officers to patrol crime hotspots. But we can only task officers to patrol those hotspots if we know it's a hotpsot, which brings me to my next point;

4) If your car has been broken in to, or something's been stolen from it (like a number plate or light cluster), please do let us know, no matter how low value the article is. Even if you know your car has been rummaged through and nothing taken and no actual damage caused to the car, let us know. If an offence has taken place, we will put on a crime report. These crime reports get looked at by intelligence analysts and we use them to identify where our hotpsots are. If a priority hotspot emerges we direct officers to patrol that area at the relevant times. This can include uniformed and plain clothes patrols as well as your safer neighbourhoods teams.

So in summary:
- Ring police on 999 if you see suspicious behaviour.
- Make sure your cars are locked.
- Please report any motor vehicle break ins. It's really not a problem. You're not bothering us, it's part of our job and it's what we're here for.

Finally, firsttimer could you email my team on balham.snt@met.police.uk, with details of where (and when this took place) please? That's quite useful information!

Thanks everyone.

[Pud1]

Thanks for your post MPSBatterseaSgt. That is really useful to know.

[firsttimerSW11]

Thank you, I have just reported it. I didn't do so initially as I didn't really think anything could be done, as well as the fact that my husband didn't actually witness any crime, so didn't want to waste anyone's time or police resources.

[kgarner]

We witnessed what looked like the end of a car theft on our street the other night. My husband videoed from the house but Brixton police station weren't interested in the footage as they found the USB hard to get to grips with (!). Do you have an equivalent email address for Streatham, as it sounds like it might be more productive emailing them?

[firsttimerSW11]

Hi there, the Balham police email and that of Nathan Shickle are mentioned a few posts above. I'd persevere..

[kgarner]

We don't live in Balham, so I would prefer contact details for Streatham if possible- particularly as they are not in the same borough.

[atbattersea]

Parts of Streatham are in Wandsworth, as is Balham.

[kgarner]

Quite so, but mine certainly isn't. If MPSBatterseaSgt sees this, I would very much appreciate that email address if possible!

[sid_seal]

Hi kgarner,

Try this: http://content.met.police.uk/Team/Lambeth/Thornton

If this is not your area, there is a list of contacts for similar teams.