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Key message driven home in fight against rural crime
Jul 28, 2010
POLICE and councillors joined forces last week to drive home the message to residents in Teesdale to ‘lock it or lose it’.
Since May, more than 18 vehicles have been taken after their owners left keys either in the ignition or on view to potential thieves.
PC David Sellwood, and county councillors George Richardson and Pauline Charlton, launched the ‘lock it or lose it’ campaign last week to raise awareness about the growing problem.
Key fobs, posters and stickers have been produced to help remind
the public to be more security conscious.
PC Sellwood said: “We want to educate the public to try and stop them leaving their keys in the ignition of their cars, or on display.
“Most vehicles made after the 02 registration are almost impossible to steal without the keys, so if people made sure their vehicles were locked, there would be a lot less thefts.”
Cllr Richardson, who along with Cllr Charlton and Cllr James Rowlandson, gave money from their councillors’ budget to fund the campaign, said he himself had been a victim of this type of crime and that he had learned about vehicle safety the hard way.
Cllr Richardson, who is a farmer, said: “I would extend the warning further to tractors and farm machinery because me and my son share use of a tractor but we now leave the keys in a safe place.”
Cllr Charlton also warned that people should check that their home insurance covered motorised garden equipment as she faced a problem after her ride-on lawn mover was stolen.
What the police term as ‘two-in-one’ burglaries have also been commonplace during the recent spate of thefts. These incidents are where keys have been left on view inside people’s homes and thieves break in and steal them in order to get access to vehicles parked outside.
PC Sellwood added: “People are getting better at locking up their vehicles on a night but most of the recent thefts took place during the day, in close vicinity to the owners’ homes.
“You might think that you can pop inside and your vehicle will be safe but it only takes a minute for the thefts to occur so people need to lock their vehicles and take the keys with them.”
Free key fobs are being handed out throughout the dale including UTASS, Barnard Castle auction mart, Farmway, Carrs of Billington and the NFU offices.