Rise in burglaries ‘not unexpected’ as restrictions lift

Meath Crime Prevention Officer urging people to be security conscious as thieves target homes and property

As incidents of burglaries continue to rise, the public is being reminded to be conscious of security and reduce opportunity for thieves to target your home.

Meath Crime Prevention Officer Dean Kerins said burglaries had been few and far between during lockdown and it was inevitable that they were going to rise with people out and about again and back at work.

He said over the last two years of the pandemic, burglaries had been low because people had been at home and there were a lot of checkpoints which meant the criminals couldn't move about freely to commit crimes.

“Burglary levels were unnaturally low for obvious reasons and are now up to where we were at about three years ago.

“Once restrictions started to lift and things started to open up, you could see more activity as people went back to work and criminals started to get more active.

He said there had definitely been an increase in burglaries over the last few months but it wasn't unexpected.

“There are still a lot of daytime burglaries but not a huge amount of nighttime burglaries. Most burglaries are in the late afternoon or early evening. What we have seen is that it is predominately the main bedroom and the hotpress that are being searched.

“If an alarm is going off, we expect only these two places to have been gone through. If there is no alarm, they will have lots of time to go through every room in the house but if there is an alarm they will go straight to the main bedroom.”

He said some people have been using the hot press as a hiding place and it will almost certainly be searched.

“The house alarm won't stop them but it limits the time they are going to stay in the house. They will stay 2, 3 or 4 minutes with the alarm going off but if there is no alarm they could spend an hour and go through every room in the house.

“Some people say alarms are a waste of time but what they are achieving is limiting the time they will stay in the house.”

Cash and jewellery is what burglars are after and Sgt Kerins said unfortunately in a number of break-ins they are getting cash, where people might be gathering cash for a holiday for example.

Sgt Kerins once again emphasised the importance of alarms as a deterrent, also good lighting, and said more and more people are also adding CCTV to their security as systems become more inexpensive with some that people can put up themselves and then check on an app on their phone.

“The two are working in hand. They are not state of the art systems but they are good enough to show if somebody is at the house if the alarm goes off.”

More sophisticated systems can be put in by professional installers which are higher quality and Sgt Kerins has pointed out that if getting a system linstalled and you are not doing it yourself to make sure it is a registered installer.

“If there is a serious incident the CCTV will only be accepted in court if it is put in by a registered installer or by yourself.”

Many burglaries are opportunistic and criminals are travelling around looking for easy opportunities where a window is left open, gates are open, where they see a car drive out of the house. they will take advantage.

Sgt Kerins is encouraging people to have a basic level of security. To look at having timer switches so lights come on and give the impression there is somebody not too far away.

“We have to put ourselves in the criminal's shoes. Is there a gate open, is there a window open, is there no car. Is there no alarm or CCTV. They are looking for easy targets where their chances of getting caught are limited. If the gate is closed, they have to make more of an effort to climb across it. If there is an alarm they might think again and move on.”

“All security products serve a purpose. It won't stop every single burglary, but they will slow them down and make them think twice. They want easy opportunities. They don't want hassle like overcoming an alarm system.

“Security measures will stop a lot, they won't stop everyone but it does make it more difficult.”

Sgt Kerins also said to “make sure the pay off is small” if a burglar does get in and not to leave cash or good jewellery around. If using a safe, make sure it is certified and properly put into the wall.

“Do not leave cash lying around, they have an uncanny way of sussing it out,” he said.

Regarding avenues for stolen jewellery, he outlined that it may be exchanged for drugs, could be melted down or sold abroad or in another part of the country on online sites. He is also encouraging people to take photos of valuable jewellery and said where jewellery is recovered it can be hard reuniting it with owners and having photos helps identify it.