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.