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Burglars about - Garthorne Rd
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mrwandle


Posts: 73
Joined: Sep 2011
Post: #1
02-03-2016 11:45 AM

Hi - not to frighten anyone, just a tip off to be careful.

We were burgled Monday night on Garthorne Rd. They got in from the nature reserve at the back and crow-barred the kitchen window, looks like the railings at the Beadnell Rd entrance have been bent to let someone through so that may have been the way in. They took the usual stuff that was easy to lift but made off with the car keys and the car. We heard nothing at all upstairs while this was going on.

In future I'll be putting car keys and wallets away, hiding laptops out of sight and putting double locks on all windows.

   

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Azira


Posts: 35
Joined: Mar 2014
Post: #2
02-03-2016 06:34 PM

Sorry to hear that. May I ask what time this happened roughly?

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Herbparis


Posts: 158
Joined: Jan 2008
Post: #3
02-03-2016 08:05 PM

Hi mrwandle

Sorry to hear about that. I am involved in the Friends of Garthorne Road Nature Reserve, https://www.facebook.com/groups/Friendso...ef=browser or ours blog http://garthorneroadnaturereserve.com/

The fence is the responsibility of the council and I will report it to the
appropriate Council department and hopefully get it repaired ASAP

We had just started the group and hope to get some funding to improve better fencing and gates for security of the site at the Beadnell Road entrance.

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mrwandle


Posts: 73
Joined: Sep 2011
Post: #4
03-03-2016 08:59 AM

Thanks both,

It happened between 12am and 6am Tuesday morning. The Council have been very responsive and have repaired the gate already. That's great about the group Herbparis, thanks for the update. During summer it would have been harder for them to get to the fence because of the brambles but it's quite easy during the winter.

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mrwandle


Posts: 73
Joined: Sep 2011
Post: #5
03-03-2016 10:12 AM

PS - if anyone sees a 10 year old metallic blue Volvo V50 that looks abandoned could you let me know! Thanks. A bit optimistic I know.

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Mr_Numbers


Posts: 513
Joined: May 2012
Post: #6
03-03-2016 11:47 AM

That's rotten news. Sorry to hear it.

I don't know that area very well but it looks like it's not a million miles from where P1971 got burgled recently (Rockbourne Road). Probably just a coincidence. Probably...

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honoroak


Posts: 17
Joined: Nov 2011
Post: #7
03-03-2016 02:31 PM

Very sorry to hear about this, we're just down the road & I caught people in our garden a few years ago breaking into our shed but they ran away when I disturbed them.

There are may weak points in the fence that runs along the back of Gathorne road to Beadnell st (I think people have been jumping / climbing over it for years) you can gain access just by walking in between the houses.

I contacted Nick Pond from Lewisham council who is responsible for managing the site some years ago but was told they have no budget to repair the fence how ever he did come down and do some repairs to the many gaping holes in it.

The gate on Beadnell st has had the bars bent out on it like that for months it's not recent, it's easy to gain access you can hop over from the neighbours wall over the fence it isn't high, or one of the many alleys between houses.

I guess we have to be extra vigilant and up security.


Nicholas.Pond@lewisham.gov.uk
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/open...fPL8.email

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Nick M


Posts: 35
Joined: Sep 2012
Post: #8
03-03-2016 06:27 PM

Very sorry to hear about this. It is worth installing a burglar alarm if you don't have one and arming it at night for the downstairs area, which is what I do.

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P1971


Posts: 816
Joined: Feb 2009
Post: #9
03-03-2016 08:38 PM

Sorry to hear this mrwandle.

Wish you the best of luck with finding your car, I'll keep my eyes pealed.

A couple of years ago my campervan got stolen & just by spreading the word and talking to my customers someone that had been working on a property in Penge told me they thought they saw one of the same description on the Road they had been working at.This was a week later, it was mine & I got it back, apparently there was a gypsy caravan site nearby & stolen vehicles had turned up there a few times.

Feel free to drop me in a pic if you have one & I'll put it in my window.

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Tinkerbell


Posts: 361
Joined: Dec 2007
Post: #10
04-03-2016 09:13 AM

Agree this is not great as it's at least the third break-in from either the reserve itself or the alleyway between the reserve and the back of Garthorne Road houses at the Beadnell end of the road that I'm aware of in the last 12 months, always via the gardens. Am starting to get a teeny bit paranoid as neighbours on either side were targeted. May consider burying landmines at the back of the garden. Ok, maybe not.

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Mr_Numbers


Posts: 513
Joined: May 2012
Post: #11
04-03-2016 09:30 AM

Quote:
May consider burying landmines at the back of the garden.

Use bear traps instead. Less lethal, more painful. Cursing

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ForestHillier


Posts: 490
Joined: Jul 2010
Post: #12
04-03-2016 09:47 AM

Who cares if its lethal - these scum deserve it

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Decker


Posts: 116
Joined: Nov 2014
Post: #13
04-03-2016 10:29 AM

Glad you and your family are OK!


Probably a good thing they found some items and didn't get more desperate and head upstairs.


But extreme but a friend of mine recently put CCTV in his house. It wasn't that expensive if I remember correctly.

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Tinkerbell


Posts: 361
Joined: Dec 2007
Post: #14
04-03-2016 11:19 AM

Funnily enough, as I was writing my last comment, a young guy in grey hoodie was walking round in the nature reserve. Now I'd be happy for young people to take such a super-keen interest in the nature around them on a beautiful day like today, but somehow I'm kinda doubtful that's what he was doing. May be a perfectly innocent walk-around/teenager seeking a bit of solitude, but as the reserve is closed off, he'd have jumped the fence somewhere at least? Or are Lewisham conservation officers going incognito in grey hoodies now?? (I should mention that I work from home and my home-office looks out onto the reserve, I'm not the new self-appointed neighbourhood-watch-militia or anything, promise! No, really! Smile )

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mrwandle


Posts: 73
Joined: Sep 2011
Post: #15
04-03-2016 12:05 PM

Thanks all - car found intact yesterday in Brixton.

If nothing else some basic maintenance on the fence should be a priority with the potential to replace the whole lot when some funds are raised. Failing a bear trap, maybe some planting in the reserve to make it less easy to get to the houses from the central path? Further along where the growth is more dense there doesn't seem to be the same problem? I'm only hoping they managed to get covered in some of the fox poo I chuck over the back on a regular basis.

Sounds like there's a real issue along this side of the road - very sad.

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OakR


Posts: 216
Joined: Oct 2011
Post: #16
04-03-2016 12:26 PM

The planting idea sounds good. Some hard to get through buses, that would provide some good cover for birds and other animals and maybe some brambles with the added fruit benefit might be good (assuming they are not too invasive for the reserve).

The alarm system mentioned above makes sense also, I know some people who have done that.

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Perryman


Posts: 820
Joined: Dec 2006
Post: #17
04-03-2016 06:40 PM

Most thieves are actually really bad at what they do

Quite interesting.
Generally the US offenders are mostly teenage boys going through a phase. They're not more likely to have come from a poor home. And this kind of crime just does not pay anyway - they are doing it for the thrill.
This all sounds very plausible for the UK too.

So putting bear traps down would just make it more exciting for them.
Better to warn that all trespassers will be locked in the bathroom until they have had a good wash and combed their hair.

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