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Posted by admin - 07/01/09 at 04:01:22 pmBRIMBANK is the burglary capital of Victoria.
Thieves broke into 1445 homes in suburbs such as Sunshine, St Albans and Keilor in the 2007-08 financial year.
Almost 29,000 homes were burgled from July 2007 to the end of June last year.
Police have warned that burglars are busiest in the summer holidays.
They advise holiday-makers to securely lock their homes this month and give the houses a lived-in look before departing.
During the last summer holidays the burglary rate skyrocketed in municipalities including Maribyrnong, Boroondara and Hume.
In Maribyrnong, for instance, 39 houses were burgled in November 2007, but 106 the next month.
Police say more than 2600 Victorian homes were broken into last January, and 2261 homes in December 2007.
Safer Communities Unit Insp Jill Wood said: “People have to understand that burglars are very conniving and will often scope out locations before breaking into them.
“That’s all the more reason to make it look like you’re home. Burglars will target homes that show signs of being vacant, such as unmowed lawns, letterboxes overflowing with mail, no lights on at night.”
Some of Victoria’s safest suburbs were in rural areas, although country centres had markedly different burglary rates.
Ballarat had 749 burglaries last financial year; Greater Bendigo just 360, despite similar populations.
Benalla, with a population of about 14,000, had just 29 burglaries.
Insp Wood said police were shocked to find some home owners who suffered break-ins last year had not locked their windows and doors.
“There’s no such thing as, ‘It will never happen to me’. Murphy’s Law says if it can happen, it will,” she said.
“The tiny inconvenience of having to lock windows and doors will save you the much larger hassle of replacing your valuables.”
Victoria Police provided some tips on how to avoid burglaries, including:
INSTALL and use deadlocks, window locks, security doors and an alarm.
LEAVE curtains and blinds as you would if regularly at home.
DON’T leave notes for people, or keys in obvious places.
MAKE sure your home is well lit at night.
INSTALL a timer that switches lights and appliances on and off at programmed times.
TRIM foliage to remove blind spots on your property.
Source: www.heraldsun.com.au 7 January 2009
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