‘LETTERBOX THIEVES’ SPARK POLICE WARNING
Abingdon Herald
“LETTERBOX thieves” have burgled five houses in the same Didcot estate in a month - using coat hangers to hook open door handles, and snatching car keys, valuables and vehicles while owners are sleeping.
Police are urging householders to keep keys out of sight and to always lock doors following a spate of break-ins in the Fleet Meadow area.
The warning follows a burglary in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Queen Elizabeth Close, Fleet Meadow, where a thief used a coat hanger through the letterbox to reach a handbag containing car keys.
While the residents were tucked up in bed, their dark blue Volkswagen Golf was stolen, as well as electrical goods and about £5,000 of valuables.
Didcot’s crime reduction advisor, Mark Bradfield, said: “The main message is to make sure you are properly locking the door with a key. This sort of burglary is easily avoided.”
He said thieves had stolen thousands of pounds worth of goods from properties in the Fleet Meadow estate in the last month, including three cars, laptops, mobile phones and cash.
Two houses in St Hilda’s Close were targeted in the early hours of July 16, and on the same night a property in Worcester Drive was broken into.
One car, two sets of car keys and a PlayStation computer console were taken.
Just over a week later, on July 27, a house in Viking Drive was broken into and a car and a handheld computer were stolen.
All the residents were at home in bed at the time.
Mr Bradfield said the crimes were linked, and thieves were focusing on houses with UPVC doors with multi-locking point systems.
These types of doors are closed by raising the handle, but they are not properly locked unless a key is used.
This means a thief can easily insert something through the letterbox, hook the interior door handle down and get in without forcing entry or making a noise, said Mr Bradfield.
He said: “The method of entry can be easily prevented by using the key to deadlock the door after you have lifted the lock to engage the multi-locking point system.
“If the key is not used, the door is not properly locked and you are at risk of being burgled.”
Officers have been raising awareness of the problem by delivering advice leaflets to houses on the estate and increasing police patrols.
Mr Bradfield added: “It is not just the money they take, it is the inconvenience and the feeling of paranoia afterwards.
“Although all of these incidents were in Fleet Meadow, it could quite easily be some other part of Didcot that is targeted next time.”
The victim of Tuesday’s “letterbox burglary” has spoken of his horror at discovering his car and thousands of pounds worth of goods were stolen - as his family slept upstairs.
The man, who has asked not to be identified, was left reeling after he came downstairs to find his Volkswagen Golf had been taken from his home in Queen Elizabeth Close.
Some of the contents of his wife’s handbag, including personal photographs, were strewn across the driveway.
As well as the car, a holdall of clothes which had been left in the boot, a wallet, credit cards, mobile phones, iPods, keys and computer games were missing.
The victim said: “I’ve always regarded my home as being a safe place to be, but clearly it’s not if people can come in and help themselves to my possessions.
“It is just the fact that someone’s been in my house and particularly when we were in, with my wife and two kids upstairs - it is frightening.
“I didn’t hear anything in the night, and just came downstairs to find the door slightly ajar, and I looked out on the driveway and saw my car was gone.
“We wanted to cheer ourselves up by buying some football tickets but we can’t, as we’ve got no way of paying for it. We’ve have to cancel our cards and put a block on the phones, and now we are waiting for it all to be replaced.
“You feel your family should be safe in your own home. It is violating your own space.”
