Burglars hit Hawke's Bay's new subdivisions

Hawke's Bay Today
21 July 2011

By ROGER MORONEY

Residents of new housing estates across Hawke's Bay are being urged by police to link in to the Neighbourhood Support network and to go on "burglar alert" after a series of daytime break-ins at two new developments.

"Someone is active out there," Napier Police law enforcement team analyst Sandra McMurray said.

There had been five burglaries reported at the Parklands Estate at Tamatea over the past three weeks with police suspecting the estate was being targeted by one offender, or the same offenders, as the method of forced entry had followed a pattern.

Te Awa Estates just south of the city had also been targeted recently.

Ms McMurray said the break-ins were all during daylight and the offender was likely to be door knocking to see if people were home or not.

"We urge people to keep an eye out for their neighbours and to call us immediately if they see anything suspicious," she said.

Developing estates often had work contractors coming and going, and burglars had been known to try and "fit in" by pretending to be working in the area.

"Just call us and let us check them out."

She also urged people to take registration numbers of vehicles they may have suspicions about.

Community groups such as Neighbourhood Support were valuable and needed to be considered, especially in newly developed areas, Ms McMurray said.

In June house burglaries were slightly up in Napier with 71 reported compared with 63 for June last year. Burglaries of commercial properties were down from 38 last June to 30 this year.

Hastings burglary statistics were the opposite - house break-ins were down from 122 in June last year to 90 this year, while commercial burglaries were up from 31 to 43.

The freezing temperatures across Napier and Hastings this week had created a welcome respite in July burglary reports for police, Ms McMurray said.

"The big chill seems to have kept them at bay," she said, adding that since the weekend and the start of the severe frosts burglaries had almost dried up.

Reports of cars being broken into across the two cities had also fallen along with the temperatures over recent days.

Another factor was the arrival of the school holidays.

"There are more people at home during the day now."

Source: http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/news/burglars-hit-hawkes-bays-new-subdivisions/1063294/