thanks to everyone for your kind words.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed re the watch. Hoping he did pawn it rather than sell it. It hasn't passed the 30 day point yet so if it's at a pawnbroker's then they should still have it.

Waiting for the police to call with an update!

Folks, you may want to bear in mind the sub judice rules before commenting further on this. Don't want anyone getting into trouble, or our friend arguing he can't have a fair trial...

thanks. I have googled sub judice and won't say anymore until sentencing. I haven't named him nor given my address so I'm pretty sure it'll be ok, thanks for the heads up though!

Hope you get the watch back Thea.
Good luck and hope you can put this nasty experience behind you as soon as possible.

Sadly my first post on here surrounds the negative issue of burglary. Like many on here, I should point out that since being in SE23 since 2009 I can only describe Forest Hill as magnificent, so the experience of being burgled a few weeks ago was something unusual

Seems my experience was a common one - rear of the house, windows smashed in (Devonshire Road). Quite how no one noticed someone mounting the fence on a Sunday afternoon, and smashing in the window is truly remarkable

Anyway Fairlawn, Dartmouth Arms, Hob, St Davids Cafe, ELL, Nature Reserve and now membership to the community blog. Too many positives about SE23 outweighing this one off negative event!

Definitely seeing more threads about burglaries lately. It seems to be far to easy for the criminals. Not good, what can we do?

1 Check to see whether number of 'threads' are a reliable indicator of burglaries. 2 get security tips from government websites. 3 support your local community centres, youth clubs, vote for political parties that know how to tackle the causes of crime 4 leave law enforcement to the police.

Also, keep back walls and fences in good nick, put trellis' up, grow plants up them. Little things will help put them off. Don't make it easy for them to garden hop.

From a recent article in The Economist (Not Worth Nicking), which suggests that burglars can be analysed as consumers, it mentions that, “…in London, burglary peaks in winter.”

This may be why, as mentioned on this thread, that burglary appears, on the face of it, to have somewhat increased in SE23 lately. It might, though, be just our yearly winter spike coming to an end. I don’t have any longitudinal data from the local area to back this up. Just idly joining some dots here.

I find a regular brush up on helpful hints from the Directgov page on Burglary to be quite, well, helpful.

I found this interesting list of tips that was gained by interviewing burglars who have been caught. It is on a forum with the thread title Burglar Tactics "Tips from Convicted Burglars". It is American but very much universal.

Most interestingly, one of them said, “I almost never go into kids' rooms.”

Has Neighbourhood Watch been in decline in our area? I observe only a handful within a 2 mile radius of Forest Hill train station from their wonderfully informative website. You can check out your local Neighbourhood Watch Group here.

I think I once heard a joke that some good hearted people created a website to pinpoint vacant properties to local councils to shame them in getting them fixed and filled because of the London housing shortage. Naturally, this website was quickly taken down as it became a tool for squatters to pick and choose their next abode. (I think it was a joke?)

On the same line of thought, I’m just wondering if by mentioning your street in a recent burglary we may be highlighting to any of our forum “mates”, with burglary on their mind, a hotspot or a potentially easy area to target.

None-the-less, I am very thankful that SE23.com Forum Users, who have recently been burgled, have taken the time to inform us all. Particularly, for raising our awareness on the burglary issue overall in our SE23 neighbourhood.

And some of the handy tips to minimise burglary that are being posted are very much appreciated.

Wasp Spray - great idea - wonder if I could use oven cleaner in the meantime

Our road used to have a very active[/u] Neighbourhood watch scheme in the 1980's - but the main organisers moved away and it dwindled to nothing. I wondered about restarting it but wasn't sure how to go about it.

Hi Erekose
My road is very active with neighbourhood watch, we have stickers in our windows and advertising on our lamp posts. The tel no for Forest Hill is 0208 7212723. I have lived in Forest Hill for 15 years and have never had any trouble, but saying that on Mon 2nd April I turned up at my new shop in Dartmouth Road to finish the shop fit and and white gloss was thrown over the shop front (which never came from my shop as it was not broken into). I did report it and had a swift visit from the police followed with phone calls and a follow up letter today. I have noticed more police presence passing the shop since this incident which is good and I have had no more trouble since then.

Hi Thea

I really hope you get the watch back.

Thea

Ask the police to check surrounding areas for pawn shops and to check CCTV i.e peckham, brockley etc as well as forest Hill and Honor Oak. hope you get lucky.

Pauline

P.S I think the more information you can give to the police can only help you.
Good Luck

Already done that. Problem is, the thief won't give his address, his last known address is in North London. He went to court today so we are awaiting a phonecall to find out his sentence.

Sort of related - I recieved a call from someone saying there had been an increase in burglaries in the area and would I like a call back on home security. They then proceeded to ask if I was the homeowner and was I in at the moment. Thinking this was very bizarre I hung up, it sounded like there were checking whether it was a good time to break in! I am waiting to here back if this is a Lewisham police sponsored matter. Anyone else received such a call?

PVP - not a phone call, but I did have a door-to-door salesperson offering me a burglar alarm with a £200 'grant' if I took them up on the offer (the grant turned out to be from the company itself, so basically a discount, or more likely they put the price up by £200, then offer a £200 grant to make it seem like you are getting a deal!).

Needless to say I didn't go for it. I wonder if the company is aware of the burglaries so thought it was a good time to drum up business? I haven't had them before - its usually the loft insulation guys - but then I haven't been in this house that long. (I live in the Perry Vale 'triangle' area btw)

Three young men recently broke into a number of houses in our street. Today they came back and were recognised by one of the witnesses to the first set of break-ins. When they noticed they were being observed by residents they became verbally aggressive and left the street. Information that might be of interest is that one of them appears to use crutches...until he needs to make a quick getaway. It is thought the crutches are used to smash windows to gain entry.

Their method appears to be for some or all of them to knock on doors to see which houses appear empty before tipping off 'colleages' at the rear of the properties or going round there themselves.

I take it the police were called? What road was this on, if you don't mind me asking?

Police have been involved on both occasions and apparently caught up with them this time but since they hadn't actually done anything wrong on this occasion there wasn't anything they could do. At least one of the chaps is known to the police.

We're up Taymount Rise but I suspect they 'work' throughout the local area (they seem to prefer the 1100-1200 timeslot).

No need to get too worked up about it though, just stay aware and take sensible steps to secure your home.