SE23 Forum

Forest Hill Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team Update:

Quote:

I am writing to inform you of a recent spate of Burglaries and motor vehicle related offences that have occurred within the Forest Hill area of Lewisham. Could I ask that you as a homeowner or business person within Forest Hill be ever vigilant as we approach Christmas.
If you are a home owner, could you ensure that expensive Items such as lap top computers or tablets are not left in view of windows when you leave the home . Could you also ensure all windows and doors are locked if they have these fitted. Also make sure you set your alarm if you have one. As we near Christmas, please be mindful of leaving presents on display in windows as well.

If you are a business person, make sure again, all items of value or keys are not left on display or easily within reach if you leave the counter or shop front.
If you own a car, please when leaving it unattended, remove all items from within the car such as bags, phones and in particular sat nav or phone cradles. On this point, if you do remove the cradle, please rub the remaining sucker ring mark from the glass as well. We have also had a number of registration plates removed from vehicles.
I do not wish to alarm you, but more to make you all aware that these types of offences are occurring within Forest Hill as they generally do on the run up to Christmas period.
If you wish to speak to me regarding this or any other matter, or should you wish to have your home security reviewed for free or wish to receive a free property marking pen, please, do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely, Michael Hill PC 195PL
Michael Hill PC 195PL (DWPC)
Forest Hill Safer Neighbourhood's Team A
E-Mail; Michael.R.Hill@met.police.uk
Phone Number; 020 - 8721 - 2723

A couple of days ago at about 2pm walking down Taymount rise towards London Road I spotted a lone young man in an oversized Black baseball jacket(White sleeves and possibly writing on the back)with a hood up and a knitted hat under that loitering near a car, he kept looking in the windows and was about to touch the door then he looked around saw me walking down the street and headed off down the back alleyway behind the flats that leads onto London Road and comes out by the barber shop, all the time looking over his shoulder.
I glanced at the car to see why he was so interested and it was full of bags of items clearly on display on the back seat as if someone was moving, Including new looking trainers on top of one of the bags.
I thought of calling and reporting it but then felt awkward about doing so.
But it did strike me as suspicious behaviour especially in broad daylight.

That's interesting, our car got broken into last week, they didn't smash a window, so we assumed we hadn't locked it properly.

They didn't take a lot as we don't leave much of value in there - just some old CDs, a very small amount of change, and a sat nav but it was an old one so doubt they'd have got anything for it. And weirdly they took enough a bag of old stuff I was going to take to the charity shop! .... nothing was on view though so I guess they just chanced it. They must be desperate though to take that stuff.

We are being more thorough now with making sure the car doors are locked - you do assume that the remote keys always work but now I always test the door as well.

We didn't report the crime as we didn't lose much but should I have reported it? I didn't want to waste police time.

Report everything, as sooner or later the dots join and the profile of someones behaviour makes sense. It could be as simple as putting a known criminal near the scene of a much larger crime.

101 is there for just this purpose. A few mins invested on the phone could turn out to be something big.

Report it. I reported a broken-into shed, even though nothing was taken. It looked like the burglars were disturbed as they left a spade lying in the middle of the lawn. I dithered all day about reporting it, but eventually did, using 101. Two uniformed officers can round straight away and had a look and checked to see if there was any possibility of taking prints from the spade handle (not, unfortunately). They did say that reporting little things like this is very important as, as Snazy said, they can add up to a bigger picture.

Without information like that, they can't paint a clear picture of what is going on in the area. People regularly comment that figures are wrong, and focuses and initiatives are misguided... Give the police all the info there is... THEN if nothing is happening, you have a point.

Can't just have a voice when you choose.

Fair play RSH, it was the right choice.

This afternoon in Stanstead Road in broad daylight we saw a man in a black jacket with a hood walking down our neighbour's garden towards the house. As soon as he realised he had been seen he turned around and and went back the way he had come. We immediately reported it to the police who came very quickly. Keep vigilant!

Our car was broken into overnight a month ago with the same MO - I'd left it locked and found the doors open in the morning. The police told me that thieves are now using a device on cars with remote central locking that scans all possible signal frequencies and can eventually unlock all those cars.

They told me there had been a number of these crimes in SE23 and beyond recently, so it turns out that locking your car is of little use in these circumstances. The only prevention suggestion they made was to fit CCTV and point it at the car. Doesn't seem to be much that can be done as most cars use this locking system these days.

I was just grateful they hadn't smashed a window to get in...

Interesting. Having experienced this and knowing someone else who had a similar robbery just before Xmas it's good to know modern cars are less secure than old cars....in a way it's a better answer as I have worried since the incident that my memory was failing.

The Police wrote:

Officers from Forest Hill Safer Neighbourhood Team will be at Tyson Road on Sunday the 19th of April 2015 between 12.00pm and 1.00pm . If you have concerns about crime, disorder, anti-social behaviour or any other matters you feel police need to be aware of in your area, then please come along and speak to us.

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