Thieves steal a march on Old Bill
RTHE FIRST sign that we’d been burgled in the night came from our-then eight year old, Jack. He knocked on our bedroom door early one Saturday morning, giggling.
“Where have you hidden the microwave, daddy?”
I thought he was being silly and sleepily sent him away.Two minutes later he was back, crosser this time.
“Why have you hidden the television as well?”
The penny dropped. “Ah. I think, Jack, that we may have had a visit from Burglar Bill.”
So it transpired.A downstairs window had been forced and whoever had crept into our house during the hours of darkness had made off with the usual swag – electrical goods, some of the kids’ more expensive toys, the kitchen coin-jar, etc. It could have been worse – they could have come upstairs and into the bedrooms – but all the same I remember feeling an extraordinarily powerful surge of anger and outrage that someone had dared to break into my family’s home and refuge.
Police came promptly (this was years ago) and were sympathetic, especially about the anger. “Most people react like that,” they told me. “It’s really personal when it happens to you, isn’t it?”
The window was repaired; insurance stumped up; the whole thing faded into our family’s back
JFOR some reason I find Kate Winslet slightly irritating in interviews but when I see her act I’m awestruck.
Watching her on Sky Atlantic’s Mare Of Easttown I can only marvel at her talent. She plays a detective in a small town near Philadelphia, a tight claustrophobic community riven with distrust after a teenage girl is murdered.
Mare is dowdy, bitter and beaten by life, but Kate, right, makes her strong and warm. Winslet is wonderful; you just can’t take your eyes off her. I cannot recommend it enough. story. But at least back then there was a sense that the police would try to nail whoever was responsible. They kept us in touch with the progress of their investigation from time to time, even though in the end it drew a blank.
How different things are today. Some forces admit they won’t even send an officer around to a raided home unless the intruder is still on the premises. So it came as no surprise to learn this week that police have failed to even identify a suspect in almost one million burglaries since 2015.
It’s been a long, steady decline for the Old Bill and a corresponding rise in productivity for Burglar Bill. House thefts ending in unsuccessful investigations in England andWales stood at 79.6 per cent in the year ending March 2016.
Last year, it was 82.3 per cent. In London, it was a whisker under 90 per cent.What would you make of that if you were a thief? You’d be mightily encouraged, wouldn’t you? As low as a one-in-10 chance of being caught nicking from someone’s house. Good odds. Sling another swag-bag in the boot and a-burgling-we-will-go.
For once, the Lib Dems are on point about something: this week leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Everyone should be able to feel safe in their own homes, and know that if someone does break in they will be caught and punished.
“But having suffered the distress and trauma of being burgled, hundreds of thousands of victims are left without the closure they need and the justice they deserve.”
Priti Patel has promised us 20,000 more police officers. But will they be used to catch burglars, or record more so-called “hate crimes”?
Don’t hold your breath. Lock your doors instead.