22
Feb
2017
By Calvin at 10:47 GMT, 7 years ago
This morning (Wednesday) I read the following and dreadful BBC news story about a couple in their late 50s who were robbed at knifepoint in their Ilford home in East London during the early hours of Monday morning.
The account tells us that one of the burglars put his foot on the lady’s chest to restrain her and used a pair of pliers to cut off her necklace, whilst the second attacker held a knife against the husband’s throat in order to force the woman to hand over other jewellery.
The attackers were then disturbed by other people in the house and fled through the back garden. Quite naturally the victims were extremely distressed and let’s hope the police manage to find these thugs very soon before they do something similar to someone else.
The attackers wore dark clothing. One was white and the other black and both were in their mid-to-late 20s.
Although (as is usual with these news stories) there is no information as to how the assailants got into the house, which would have been immensely helpful for the local community, it does seem likely that either they walked in through an open back door or the security was insufficient to delay them to the point that the noise of entry would have woken up the occupants of the house.
So, while I cannot be sure how the intruders got in, this incident does press home the need to ensure that we all lock our homes up properly after dark.
Julia and I have a locking up routine, which works well for us and ensures that when we sit down in the evening to watch the telly or retire to bed we absolutely know that everything that can be locked up has been. Should we choose to do so we can set our alarm downstairs when we go to bed and we also have access (via our smartphones) to a couple of CCTV cameras just to check that the foxes and badgers aren’t doing too much damage around the garden. I might add that the rear doors are always locked when we are not out in the garden and that’s to prevent any sneak in theft in the unlikely event that someone gets into the garden.
Importantly we and any guests staying with us always know where the keys are kept in case there is a need to get out in an emergency and so yes we do have working smoke detectors too.
You can easily work out a locking up routine for yourselves, but one is available for you to use on this website at the link below. I call it KOPCAR and simply say to you that if you KOPCAR at night you won’t have to call a COP CAR in the morning.
BBC News item http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39049226
KOPCAR locking up routine http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/home-security-assessment/711/security-routine-at-night/
