Police urge caution from residents after three Southport burglaries this week

This week there have been three burglaries in Southport where the aim of the offenders appears to have been to find keys for cars parked on the driveways. Offenders have failed in these three attempts this week, either due to being disturbed by movements of the homeowners or by burglar alarms.

In these types of burglaries, a common method of entry to houses is by forcing the locks on rear patio/French doors or by snapping locks on UPVC rear/kitchen doors. Patio locks which link through the interior handles of patio doors can help reduce the risk of entry through patio doors. Older barrels in UPVC door locks can be replaced with ‘anti-snap’ door lock barrels, to reduce the risk of entry through these type of doors. Burglar alarms have proved effective this week, but simple vibration alarms that stick on the inside of windows and doors can alert home owners to anyone tampering with doors and may be enough to deter burglars.

Owners of prestige or high powered vehicles should consider taking extra measures to secure vehicles. If it is possible to garage your vehicle, you should do so. Ensure vehicles are locked and immobilised each time they are parked up, and that no items of value are left inside them. Trackers have been used to good effect in the past, but even low tech security measures such as steering locks, gear lever locks or wheel clamps can act as a deterrent. Put these on at night, once your vehicle is parked up for the night.

Burglars often check out areas in advance to see how they can gain entry to rear gardens and the sort of doors they think they can get into. So be watchful for anyone acting suspiciously around your home or the homes of your neighbours. Burglars may dress like workmen/women or delivery drivers to ‘hide in plain sight’. Report any suspicious activity as soon as you can, with descriptions of people, and vehicles and especially registration numbers of vehicles used.

Use our Operation Castle house to help find any vulnerabilities in your own home security and help #BeatTheBurglar

More crime prevention information on our website here https://crowd.in/IUTfsE