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'Game of Homes' Appeal to Householders
(May 08, 2019)Wiltshire Police are waging war on opportunist burglars and asking members of the public to play the Game of Homes in an innovative way getting local residents to play their role in crime prevention.
To play you must take some simple steps to help prevent yourself becoming a victim of burglary and make life hard for felons.
“Burglary can have a devastating impact on a person both financially and psychologically, so it is important that we continue to educate the public to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of crime, said Superintendent Sarah Robbins.
“Whilst the ‘Game of Homes’ is a fun and innovate way for us to raise awareness, here at Wiltshire Police we are under no illusion that most people don’t live in a castle and dragons and dire wolves are things of fiction."
Wiltshire Police are well experienced with the next six months that bring opportunist thieves who are willing to take what does not belong to them.
They urge residents to protect their homes and make them castles and prepare for battle.
"The more we can add to crime prevention to free up police time to challenge serious crime and those that are opportunist criminals in other ways," says former town and district councilllor Paul Macdonald.
"The town council have provided excellent CCTV of the town centre to help so we all now need to help on our estates," adds Paul.
The nicer weather often means windows and doors are left open and for an opportunist burglar this is like the ‘stars aligning providing easy access to your treasure and free roam of your castle’.
‘If you are not blessed with owning a dire wolf or a set of dragons we recommend you take these simple steps’ urge local police officers.
- Lock your doors and windows every time you leave the house, even when just in the garden. And make sure you have approved locks or bolts to all doors and windows.
- Trim back any plants and hedges at the front of your property to no higher than one meter to remove hiding places.
- Consider defensive planting. The use of prickly plants creates a physical and psychological barrier and have proven to be a successful deterrent.
- Never leave a spare key in a hiding place like in a plant pot or letter box - a thief knows all the hiding places.
- Consider installing a burglar alarm, and only use a company that is registered or certified with the NSI or the SSIAB.
- Consider installing dusk-to-dawn lighting out the front of your property
- Often burglaries take place when the house is empty during the evening or in the hours of darkness.
- Use automatic timer switches to turn lights on when it gets dark, these can also be used to turn on other appliances such as radios.
- Ladders and garden tools should be locked away, as they can be used by offenders to gain access to your home.
Wiltshire police then add ‘’lways stay one step ahead of the criminal if they unfortunately do breach your walls’ continuing the analogy.
- Take photographs of all jewellery including hallmarks and keep them safe. Also consider using an artificial DNA property marker on jewellery or other valuable items.
- Register all serial numbers from electrical items, tools and garden equipment with Immobilise.com the free national property register. Mark items without serial numbers with an artificial DNA property marker such as Smartwater or SelectaDNA.
- Ensure that all security products and service providers are Secured by Design approved.
‘In the spirit of Game of Homes, we have set up out own game, you can test your castle defences and play by visiting: https://ecomms0.wixsite.com/gameofhomes’