When Should You Start Reporting to The Police/Crimestoppers?

i recently moved into a new house. My street is pretty much a new block (the house are newly built and people just moved in recently. My next street however is quite an old area, lots of the houses are unmaintaned (a couple of nice ones too though). The thing is I experience a couple of incidents since I moved in, nothing major thankfully, but things like random people peeking over my fence (next to mu house is an empty block of land. Shoes and sandals got stolen when left at the door (they were my friends who came to visit for about 20 minutes. Light bulbs (garage and front porch) got stolen. I mean so far they are all small things, so not sure if I should bother the police and report it.

Recently however, I keep on getting anonymous door bells (when I arrive at the door, no one is there). And on the empty land next to my house, someone put chairs pressumably to peek onto my backyard. I mean random people keep throwing rubbish on the empty land, which I reported to the council and they couldn't do much anyway. But this time the chair is actually put right next to my fence.

The thing is I don't know where should I report this to. Should I report to the police. And yesterday my garderner parked his truck outside the house and got his wallet (and other stuff stolen). But he didn't lock his car, so kind of partly his fault. I talked to my neighbours, they are pretty new to the area as well and told me that once they saw 2 teenagers peeking through the windows of one of the houses. But since not actual crime happened, should we report it? Is it a crime to peek through windows/over the fence? Will the police deal with such petty crimes?

Comments

  • +5

    Buy some security cameras, but mount them inside your windows!

    ASAP

  • No the police won't do anything without evidence. Yes, you need cameras. If you can't afford cameras just put up a sign that says "24/7 security, you're being filmed". Or there're cheap plastic "pretend" cameras you can buy from ebay.

  • +1

    Sounds like you need to plant some mouse traps around your place in addition to security cameras. I would say get a guard dog too, but not sure if those people are cruel enough to torture animals. Sounds like you need a front fence/gate too.

  • Thanks for the response. I installed security alarms and there are signs "24/7 CCTV" around the house. But I guess it didn't scare them off. Might actually worth installing the actual camera. My security guy who installed the alarm said instead of CCTV should just install a front gate. And I have a small size dog, not exactly scary, but she does bark when someone is at the door. My neighbour has 3 Golden Retriever, but they are quite useless in terms of scaring them away (oh well, Golden Ret are more on the friendly side instead of a scary dog).

    I'm just hoping that by reporting to the police/crime stopper they might put my area under their watch, but I guess there are more urgent/dangerous situation for them to take care off. That's why I hesitate calling the police in the first place. As I said, its petty crimes but quite annoying and can be scary at times, hopefully it won/t get escalated into something bigger. On that note, my neighbour just told me that she lost some clothes because she left her laundry in the backyard overnight. Not the whole laundry though, just some tees and undies (she said she had some other more expensive clothes but only the basic tees and underwear went missing).

    So yeah, will look into those cameras to be installed, might need one in my backyard too. I have nothing in my backyard at the moment, so haven't got anything missing yet touchwood, but just in case.

    • +1

      Now that I read this, the stealing of the laundry and a few of the other things do sound a bit like kids getting up to no good…

  • +2

    Increase your security, absolutely. Perhaps consider putting in motion sensor lights, or better still, motion activated sprinklers. lol Do yourself a favour and get both security cameras AND a gate.

    As for tying up police time, there's not much they can do about the type of issues you have mentioned.

  • Right now, CCTV cameras will be your best friend. When you get a few images then report it to the Police.

    The fake door bells they could be from bored teenagers or people thinking of breaking into your home.

  • Agree that you should put some CCTV cameras, motion sensor lights, front fence & gate asap.

    Other suggestions include barb wire on the side adjoining that empty plot of land & perhaps also consider installing some security screen/ shutter too? (Not sure if they'd be an overkill for your neighbourhood.)

    Can you increase the height of your fence to make it harder for ppl to peek/get into your yard? It sucks when you feel like you can't leave anything in your own yard.

    • +2

      Maybe a moat?

      • +1

        Sharks or crocodiles in the moat?

        • +1

          Dragon on the roof

    • I've got motion sensor lights on the porch and driveway (the bulbs keep getting stolen btw), so probably need to install the lights more securely so they can't take it.

      Is putting barb wire on your fence legal? I heard that if someone got hurt because of it I can get sued.

      • Not sure.

        But it's probably a good time to make sure you've got adequate insurance cover.

      • +1

        they take the bulbs so the sensor doesnt work, then they can wander round later without lights going on.

  • What suburb is this? Sounds like a housing commission infested area

    • It was previously a government housing, and some blocks got freed and sold to the public. There are about 20 new houses in the area and some pensioners house across the road. The pensioners did tell me about people peeking through the windows/over the fence, so hopefully they can be an additional security to keep a watch in the neighbourhood :)

  • call crimewatch and ask, explain what problems you are having. doesnt hurt making a call.

  • +1

    Maybe on the common window peeking areas, put posters of fat naked hairy arses. If I was those kids, I would want to pull my eyes out after seeing that…Unless they're into that shit then don't do it.

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