Student Burglary Initiative

The Broomhill and Sharrow Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) launch their latest initiative in the west of the city to crack down on areas affected by sneak-in burglaries.

Burglaries tends to peak at this time of year with longer daylight hours and warmer weather, people spend more time outside and leave doors and windows open.

The initiative that commenced on Monday 9 May 2011, will run over the next four weeks, particularly in student populated areas around Sharrow Vale and Crookes.

Burglaries, predominately those that take place in the spring and summer months, are usually gained through insecure doors and windows, especially in multi occupancy properties, where students can be easy targets for opportunist thieves, as they tend to own quite a few desirable items.

Officers will be visiting the universities to offer students crime prevention advice and warnings about leaving items such as laptops, MP3 players and Wii consoles on view of thieves.

Officers will also be visiting secondhand shops and pawnbroker businesses to raise
awareness, in an effort to disrupt disposal routes for stolen items, and prevent and reduce
the opportunity for thieves to make money out of stolen goods.

Inspector Ian Roberts who leads the Broomhill and Sharrow SNTs said: “We will be working alongside the universities and our student communities, to raise awareness, and provide crime prevention advice to help us crack down on sneak-in burglaries. It only takes seconds for someone to sneak in through an unlocked door or to reach through an open window and steal your possessions.

By following a few basic steps you can greatly reduce your chances of becoming a victim of burglary:

• Remember to lock all doors and windows when leaving any premises
• Store keys in a safe place away from doors and windows
• Don't leave a spare key in a convenient hiding place such as under the doormat or in a flowerpot
• Avoid leaving valuables such as laptops, IPods and mobiles in view of prying eyes
• Alarming premises, sheds, garages and outbuildings
• Always check the identity carefully of any unknown callers, before letting them in to your property
• Ensuring that your property is identifiable by marking it or registering expensive items on the UK National Property Register, which can be found at www.immobilise.com

Sheffield remains one of the safest cities in the country and together we can make it even safer for all our communities. Anyone with information about who’s committing this type of crime is urged to call South Yorkshire Police on 0114 2202020 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.