A word of caution if you've been burgled

[Mark]

Some friends of mine (who live in the East End) were burgled two months ago and yesterday they came back from a few days away in Spain to find out they've been burgled again by the same thieving gits. How do they know it was the same thieving gits? When the thieving gits broke in the first time they took one of the spare keys for the French window, as the key was on a bunch with other keys in a kitchen draw my friends didn't notice. The thieving gits then waited a couple of months i.e. time for the stolen things to be replaced, and then struck again.

Not really a specific East Dulwich issue but just a word of warning that hopefully might stop this from happening to someone else.

[Jeremy]

A friend of mine, who used to live in Brixon, came home one day to find his front window broken (but no burglary). He had the window fixed immediately.

The next day, he returned home to find that the still-soft putty around the window had been removed, and the theives had therefore silenty enetered the house, taking his computer and hi-fi.

[AcedOut]

Very clever. But undeniably unfortunate for the owner.

[Domitianus]

Anmother word of warning. If you have been burgled....don't use your toothbrushes!

[Keith]

It a known fact that burglers return to the same home up to 4-5 times. It's important to be warned of this by the police as they know these statistics. A monitored alarm should be installed so that if your away a direct call is made to the police to respond to the alarm. Also some web cams can be set up in your home to start recording once movement is detected and record the images to a remote computer. It's not the best option, as a deterent is better than video images of someone carting your fav stuff out your door.

[snorky]

Usuallty theyse crack heads and have no fear about coming back time and time again.

[Mark]

You can also set up a web cam to email you if motion is detected, it emails you a picture of the action. Handy if you're at work and want to check what time the builder actually arrives ;-)