800 burglaries a month
Nearly 800 homes a month are broken into in Canterbury – the only metropolitan region where numbers rose last year.
Alarmed, police have launched a clampdown on burglary, locking up at least 10 of the city’s worst offenders since November. And before the end of February, another
20 staff will join a team focused on catching burglars.
Shayden Whipps is one recent victim. He arrived home from work on Monday to find his Christchurch house ‘‘tipped upside down’’.
‘‘My first thought was my wife had left it in a right state. Then I thought wait, this is way too messy.’’
A burglar had ripped open a locked lounge window, ransacked the St Albans house and took precious items including jewellery left to Georgia Whipps by her late mother, who died of cancer in 2017. One was a necklace with a mould of her mother’s fingerprint.
Shayden, 28, a marketing coordinator and his wife Georgia, a
26-year-old early childhood teacher, bought the 1910s villa in October
2016, with a dream to renovate. They run an Instagram page and blog called MoochStyle about their DIY renovation journey.
The burglary left them ‘‘disgusted’’. The stolen jewellery included one-off pieces like vintage pearls. A camera, laptop and UE Booms were also taken. They still held hope some would be returned.
‘‘We work so hard for everything we have... and then someone violates our privacy. We had such a hard year last year, we lost three people to cancer and then, this happened,’’ Shayden Whipps said.
The couple did not have an alarm but are about to install one.
The Whipps’ house was one of three burgled in St Albans on the same day. A car was also broken in to.
The suburb is not the worst for crime in Christchurch.
Police said Riccarton and Wigram had a high number of burglaries at the end of last year and Merivale had an increase this year.
Phillipstown was the city’s burglary capital, with 199 reported burglaries last year. Sydenham was second with 187 while the area around Ensors Rd was third with 140.
Canterbury had 9273 ‘‘unlawful entry with intent/burglary’’ crimes reported to police in 2018, up from 8086 in 2017 – a 14 per cent increase. .
Reported burglaries fell last year in Auckland, Wellington and Waikato by 8 per cent, 17 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Waikato had the most burglaries per person out of New Zealand’s four most populous regions, but the numbers were decreasing. ‘‘We work so hard for everything we have . . . and then someone violates our privacy. We had such a hard year last year, we lost three people to cancer, and then this happened.’’ Shayden Whipps
Canterbury district commander Superintendent John Price acknowledged there was an issue. He signed off the special burglary operation. ‘‘I’m committed to turning this around. ‘I’m not going to make excuses."
Christchurch metro area commander Superintendent Lane Todd said an additional 20 staff would be added to the tactical crime team on February 25, to increase the focus on catching burglars.
Todd said the increase in burglaries in 2018 could be due to several factors including poor security and people using social media to share their holidays.
Head of tactical crime, Acting Detective Inspector Michael Ford, said a small group of key offenders could be responsible for three or four burglaries a day. Recent arrests had already had an impact, as burglary figures had now started trending down.
Price said about 50 per cent of burglaries happened because people did not lock up.
‘‘Most burglars are opportunists. When they walk past and see a door open or a garage door open up the driveway, they see a window open, that’s an entry point for them. If you’re out and about, secure your house before you go out.’’
Police had a target of attending
98 per cent of burglaries within 48 hours. Late last year, they averaged
90 per cent, Price said.