Swindon Village and Wymans Brook Community

Swindon Village Neighbourhood Watch Update

Over recent weeks we have received an increased number of reports of suspicious persons believed to be rouge traders in our area. Please get to know your elderly neighbours and keep watch for them. As autumn approaches, rogue traders will try and con people by suggesting repairs need to be urgently carried out on their property. They may try and use a ruse to get into an elderly person’s house such as claiming to be from the water board or a drainage company. They may even claim to be coppers and ask to come in to talk about crime in the area.

Look out for your neighbours and learn to differentiate the extra-ordinary from the ordinary. Take notes and report suspicious activity to the police by dialling 101 or 999 in an emergency.

Theft from vehicles advice

This is the most common offence and is generally committed by opportunist thieves who target vehicles that have valuables in them. Your car is more likely to be broken into at home than when parked in a public car park. Risks can be dramatically reduced by taking these simple precautions when leaving it unattended.

• Always fully secure your vehicle.
• Remove detachable stereo equipment.
• Remove all items of property from view, even an old coat with nothing in the pockets will tempt some criminals.
• If removal is not an option, secure valuables out of site and do this away from final destination as criminals often observe car parks to look for people transferring valuables into the boot or hatch.
• Be selective about where you park your vehicle - is it busy and well used, will it still be busy at the time of return, is it well lit, is it covered by CCTV.

Very few cars are broken into or stolen when parked in garages -consider parking your vehicle in a garage when not in use.