How X marks spot... for Da Pinchi Code thieves

Housebreakers daub symbols to identify easy targets

It has been nicknamed ‘the Da Pinchi Code’.

The seemingly meaningless symbols have been daubed on walls or pavements.

But the squiggles are actually thought to be a ‘code’ for crooks, giving potential housebreakers details about the building, such as whether it is a good target or has an alarm, or been targeted before successfully.

Other marks could suggest that the occupant is vulnerable or that there is nothing inside the property worth taking.

So far the code has only been spotted in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, where ‘X’ marks were daubed on several garden sheds.

Lanarkshire police tweeted: ‘Breaking the Housebreaker’s code. These signs have been seen in East Kilbride, please retweet & report all sightings.’

The officers’ post features a graphic with eight different codes and what they might mean.

While police are keen for anyone who sees suspicious markings to report them, they were also keen yesterday to stress that the message was for crime prevention guidance and not to spark fear or alarm.

They also said there was nothing to suggest the markings in the area correlate to a particular meaning.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: ‘It has been the case that some garden sheds in the East Kilbride area have been marked with a cross.

‘We issued general crime prevention guidance and asked anyone who noticed anything suspicious to contact police on 101.’

The spokesman added that the guidance was in response to a number of housebreakings in the town.

The practice of crooks using a secret system to identify potential victims has been dubbed the Da Pinchi Code.

The shape of an open book means a vulnerable female resident is the occupant, while another symbol of interlocking squares i ndicates a homeowner who is ‘ nervous and afraid’.

In January, an elderly couple in Devon were mystified when a series of dodgy tradesmen kept calling at their home.

The visits took place over five years, but the homeowners could not work out why they were being singled out.

Following an i nvestigation it emerged that a rogue builder who paved their drive had left a code in a pattern of blocks to tip off other cowboy traders that the owners were a vulnerable target.

The builder, who overcharged the couple by £4,000, left the job unfinished in August 2009 but he created a squared pattern of different coloured blocks at the centre of the driveway.

The residents had not asked for the pattern but thought nothing of it until other tradesman began calling at their home in Plymstock offering to carry out work that was not required.