House burgled on Beckwith rd (North Dulwich)

[charlotteewood]

We were burgled yesterday afternoon, robbers smashed in the doors and took high value laptops and electrical items!

Please be aware they may be operating in the wider area.

Thanks

[singalto]

That is horrible. Poor you..

[goldilocks]

That is a horrible thing to come back to. If you haven't already,it might be worth checking in with neighbours to see if they tried any other houses - we recently got multiple cctv pics of a burglar from our street this way and have sent up a neighbourhood watch whatsapp group to share info / concerns etc.

In terms of helping other avoid this outcome and considering what modifications might be useful to their home security, it would be useful to understand a couple of things if you don't mind?

1. When you say 'smashed the door in' - was this an external door facing onto the street or an internal flat door -

2. linked to above - was the door mortice locked or yale / nightlatch only?

[Penguin68]

When I lived in Battersea an 'inner' front door in a purpose-built block of flats (as strong as an outer front door, and protected by e.g. Banham locks) was entered by using an electric saw to cut away the door leaving the locks etc. intact, but redundant. When thieves want to get in, little will stop them. The door was out of sight of passers by, which made it the more vulnerable.

In ED thieves kicked in an outer front door near me - I photographed the robbers (and gave the pictures to the police) - and another neighbour took down their car number but, since little of value was actually taken, they (the police) weren't really bothered to make any arrests, although I believe they did identify the suspects (and had my photographic evidence and another witness statement).

The only real purpose of reporting non-violent (crimes against property) crime now is to get a crime number which aids insurance claims.