DON’T BECOME A VICTIM – MARK YOUR PROPERTY!
July 11 2006
The Gloucester Crime Reduction Partnership is giving residents a chance to protect their property from eager thieves, by offering to security mark it for them.
On Saturday (July 15th) they will be present at the Quedgeley Show, Severnvale School, Quedgeley, along with members of the Gloucester Crime Prevention Panel.
The panel will security mark free of charge property like bicycles, whether they are brand new or a well used friend, in a bid to put the brakes on opportunist thieves.
They will also be able to mark mobile phones, to make sure that if your phone it stolen, it is much more difficult for the thief to sell it on, and easier for it to be reunited with its owner.
Items such as car stereos and even riding saddles can also be marked with a postcode, and officers will be able to offer residents advice on how to best go about this.
“Items that are easy to steal, such as bicycles and mobile phones are often the main target of thieves, but by writing your post code on them and letting potential thieves know about it can help deter them from trying to steal it,” said Pc Kevin Ireland, Crime Reduction Officer for the Forest and Gloucester division.
“Thieves hate traceable items and as a majority of theft is opportunist they can often be put off by thinking a crime can be traced back to them.
“It also means that should your property be stolen and later recovered by officers we will be able to trace who it belongs to and return it to you.”
“We need residents to help us to keep crime figures reducing, by marking their property. In addition to security coding mobile phones and bicycles, we will also be selling Smartwater, the forensic property coding liquid which has its own type of “DNA” which traces the liquid back to the scene of the crime, thus assisting with detections of burglaries.”
CDRP Chair, Councillor Bill Crowther, said: “We are delighted with the decrease in overall crime in Gloucester and ask residents and visitors to assist in reducing it still further.
“We all have a part to play in reducing crime; if we all take simple measures such as these it will certainly help to further protect our property and deter would-be-thieves.”