another burglary on Ivanhoe road

[anapau]

got in through the kitchen window which they forced open, breaking the lock. Took two laptops, two phones, an ipod and two bottles of rum from the kitchen. Purse from the living room. And the back door keys, so now we can't get out to the garden to see if they've taken any tools. Such a bloody pain.

This is at least the third or fourth burglary on Ivanhoe in the past few weeks, so be extra vigilant people.

[Loz]

I hope all these burglaries are being reported to the police.

[Jeremy]

Scary stuff. Thanks for reporting.

Does your house back onto the train line?

[ratty]

Sounds like the same ars*holes each time!

[dbboy]

This seems to be a similar M.O to burgularies at the rear of Wood Vale, seems like it's the same person.

[benmorg]

Sorry to hear about your burglary anapau. I hope they get caught.

For anyone else with a laptop that gets left at home - might be worth installing this thing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/01/man-uses-app-track-alleged-laptop-thief

[Loz]

That only works on Macs, benmorg.

[James Barber]

If you live in East Dulwich ward get a free property marking kit from the local Police - contact me with all your details.

East Dulwich ward is area bounded by Grove Vale, East Dulwich Road, Crystal Palace Road, Upland Road, Friern Road, Uniderhill Road, Dunstans Road, Lordship Lane, Melbourne Grove.

The SelectaDNA FREE property marking kits are a HUGE deterrent when properly deployed to burglars. You mark valuable property, register the unique kit and markings to you and your home address and place stickers at entrances to tell burglars. If they get caught with an item the evidence of the marking and the reported burglary is enough for a conviction.

Sadly Ivanhoe Road isn't in East Dulwich ward.

BUT if anyone wants to buy a kit google SelectaDNA or selectamark - they retail at ?55ea and after the research we did we think (local Police convinced me) the best product at this time on the market.

[kylie6097]

hi there, where on ivanhoe are you? we got hit by this a few weeks ago,

[anapau]

Just heard that another neighbour, about 10 doors down was also burgaled last night.

Loz: yes we did report the burglary. They looked for prints but found none.

Jeremy: yes our house does back on to the railway line.

Kylie: we are pretty much opposite Hoopers.

[kylie6097]

your not the only one anapau i know it doesnt help :( theres been alot of it on our road, im down by the estate and 2 houses next to me have been done too :(

scary stuff.

[Jeremy]

This is really worrying. The pattern is too blatant to be a coincidence.

They're obviously professional in their approach, not surprising that fingerprints weren't found.

If people don't have alarms installed, perhaps a quick/cheap solution could be to install simple battery alarms on your rear windows/doors. As well as the marking kits that James suggests.

[aimee_s]

I'm going to call the police officer assigned to my case to reinforce the message, as she called the other day to say they were effectively closing the case as they had no leads - and this less than two weeks after the burglary at our house occurred. Hopefully they'll link all the burglaries together.

[Penguin68]

I know this sound strange, but professional burglars are somewhat less worrying - they tend not to go in for gratuitous violence against people or property, smashing what they can't steal and using your living room as a loo (becuase that leaves traceable samples), and they would prefer not to be seen or identified. Those stealing to feed a drug habit (or just anti-social vandals) leave a trail of wanton destruction, take things with sentimental but little pecuniary value and are much more 'in your face' (sometimes literally).

The only (traumatic) impact professional thieves now generally have is that in stealing things they also steal the data now stored on those things, which makes back-up more important.

These people seem to be targetiing portable electronics and to stay on the ground floor, so jewelry seems not to be a target. There are also looking for quick pickings, so locks and safes may be a good investment. As of cousre are alarms.

[aimee_s]

Unfortunately they're not leaving behind jewellery if it happens to be sitting near the electronics! Best to keep everything upstairs, including laptops, etc. I think you're right, Penguin, that these people are professional and are very good and not been seen or getting caught. Hopefully they'll trip up and we'll all recover some of our things.

[srisky]

These thieves sound like opportunists and so it may be worth leaving one or two valuables out (not in view of the street as we don't want to encourage them to break in). The idea being that once they are in they will grab these items and leave quickly - personal safety and that of the family is paramount and I'd rather they just a took a few bits rather than start going round the house and coming face to face with one of us.

A further advantage is that you may have a little control over what they take e.g. leave your non-sentimental valuables out to satisfy their greed but ensure that your laptop with important work files/family photos are left well hidden!

[bloonoo]

i really don't understand why they bother stealing laptops though - we had all 4 of ours taken, which were worth probably about ?100 in total as they were all so old! who on earth will buy a 6 year old laptop covered in scratches with a broken cd rom drive....when we were burgled they also stole my sunglasses, which look expensive but actually came free with a magazine 3 years ago - haha, love to see what they do with those.

[srisky]

I think they grab whatever they can and then assess the loot later on!

[Jeremy]

Yeah, they probably wouldn't stick around to figure out the age/spec/condition.

[James Barber]

From the description most of these burglaries can be deterred or stopped by hardening homes. Sad we need to do this. Criminals are largely opportunistic. If they're determined they go for property that's unmarked and involves making the least noise and fuss.

For crime prevention tips go to the Crime Stoppers website OR ask your local Safer Neighbourhood Team for a home crime preveniton visit or even better do both in that order.

[sb]

.

[kylie6097]

i must add, IF these are the same people who burgled me 3 weeks ago now. they stole a very odd knife of my husbands who was in the army. they may well have kept this as a weapon.

to penguin68: i know from experience how frightening this is to have someone in your home whilst your in it. i was awake with my 2 kids eating breakfast and they didnt care. they would of heard us as i have a 10 month old who is extremely vocal at that time of the morning. i am a nervous wreck because of this now. i wont leave my door unloked, i double check, triple check and still through the night i wake thinking ive heard something. it is very traumatic to go through this.

[catma]

If you live in East Dulwich ward get a free property marking kit from the local Police - contact me with all your details.

East Dulwich ward is area bounded by Grove Vale, East Dulwich Road, Crystal Palace Road, Upland Road, Friern Road, Uniderhill Road, Dunstans Road, Lordship Lane, Melbourne Grove.

Sadly Ivanhoe Road isn't in East Dulwich ward.

BUT if anyone wants to buy a kit google SelectaDNA or selectamark - they retail at ?55ea and after the research we did we think (local Police convinced me) the best product at this time on the market.

Why free to some but at a cost to others in the same borough........?

[James Barber]

Hi Catma,

Up until this financial year the Lib Dem led council provided ?110,000 capital funding for every political ward in Southwark to spend on Cleaner, Greener, Safer projects. In East Dulwich and other Lib Dem wards we've funded lots crime prevent projects - that includes so far 2,000 free property marking kits.

I also applied to Labour and Conservative neighbouring wards. Non of these allocated any of their money to crime prevention. Various responses - one was it's the polices problems not the councils and similar. I applied several years running.

So I'm afraid locally this scheme is just in East Dulwich. We still have 300 kits of the 2,000 left. As Labour have decided in the first financial year of running the council to have no such capital devolved budgets well not be able to buy more kits for the foreseeable future once the 300 run out.

Hope that makes sense.

[DJKillaQueen]

That's nonsense James. The Nunhead and Peckham Rye SNT have been delivering crime prevention kits over the past months to residents of their patch.