Burglars to target 1000 Bristol homes

Burglars are likely to target around 1000 Bristol homes in the next three months.

The number of crimes have been calculated by the police from previous annual statistics.

Now the city’s priority crime team are trying to help people from becoming of victim themselves.

The Safer Homes scheme funded by the council is working with the public, the police and Safer Bristol to cut burglary rate in the city.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Kelvey, from the burglary team urged the public to be aware of how to make themselves less vulnerable to the crime.

He said: “When you think that there are roughly 250,000 households in the Bristol area 1,000 seems like a small number, so you may think it is unlikely to be you. But we know that if it does happen to you, being burgled is more than just the inconvenience of an insurance claim. It can have a real impact on the way people live their lives, their wellbeing and how safe they feel.”

Around 300 of all anticipated burglaries will occur because a back door is left unlocked or a window left open.

Smashing a small window or glass panel in a front or back door accounts for other burglaries and people are being warned not to leave keys in locks or on nearby surfaces.

Some of the most common ways a burglar will break in is to force doors and windows and the best protection against this is to have appropriate and good quality strong locks.

Carpenter Rich Reid who works for the Safer Homes team says: “Things like putting a guard on the inside of your letterbox to stop people being able to put their hands through. It’s also important to make sure you use all the locks on your doors, like deadlocks as even body pressure can pop a latch lock.”