Residents' Association Forum

Every incident of theft from motor vehicles and theft of motor vehicles will be tweeted during the week starting 11 July - part of Surrey Police’s 2011 Vehicle Crime Campaign which runs for three months from May to July.  You don’t need a Twitter account to follow the Force’s #CarCrime tweet week but can just log on to
http://twitter.com/#!/Surreypolice 
to view incidents as they happen or are reported. Anyone who then has any information about one of the crimes is asked to call Surrey Police on 0845 125 2222.

To kick start the week the Force will be hosting a Twitter chat from 12 noon to 1pm on Monday (11 July) when messages sent to the Surrey Police account using the hash tag #CarCrime will be answered live.

An interesting initiative.  Would one of you like to track it for the TD&WG area, & post any relevant bits here please?

Monday (where were you, guys?!):
White Ford Transit broken into in Thames Ditton & Bag and Purse stolen. 
Police appeal for witnesses after a man is robbed and assaulted in Thames Ditton  [[ this was on Hampton Court way I think ]]

http://www.kingstoninformer.co.uk/2011/07/prolific-kingston-car-gang-jai.html

We had one or two cases here where professional car thieves fished for keys inside houses.  One modus operandi is to steal the car then leave it parked up in a public car park for some days, the criminals' idea being that if it is reported stolen and has a tracker installed, or is otherwise easily identified, it will be recovered by the authorities.  If it stays where it is, they will assume it is safe for them to take it to the next stage (which can be sale for use in some other crime).  The police being wise to this, a cat-and-mouse stakeout may be mounted.

I see one of the gang was Harry Mackay of Queens Road, presumably brother of Frankie Mackay in the 'dark side of Queen's road' story. And then there's Tommy (or is he Frankie Tommy?) who was hailed a hero after rescuing a baby from the burning tower block in Kingston, only to later be convicted of kicking down a door in McDonalds. Extraordinary! 

Tuesday: Van broken into in Esher, hedge trimmer stolen from inside.

[[Hedge trimmer?!  Desperate!]]

A car was being dusted for prints in Thorkhill Road earlier today - possible theft from vehicle??

No mention of it on the week's Tweets, the last one of which was two hours ago (making it about 0930)

Indeed, so far there have been only the above three incidents in or near TD&WG  mentioned so far in this thread (only one of which relates to a car crime in TD&WG).  And county-wide, the incidence of car crimes seems to have been quite low since Monday, doesn't it?

there was someone on a bike trying car doors in colets car park last night I was told

Well, that's almost six days gone by now and still only the one report of a car crime in TD & WG tweeted by the police (or others).  Friday night appears to have passed without incident.

Just been to the garden shed (Sun morning) and found the lock broken and both my bike and my wifes have gone (Sat night). Both Specialized rockhopper mountain bikes, and both locked together in the shed with a gold standard lock. Both are black, one has hybrid tyres if anyone sees them. Will register the theft, but mad as we were due to go off on them today. 

Sad to hear that - commiserations.  I put up an advisory on shed crimes last week http://residents-association.com/news/crimewatch.php.  There has been a spate of them in Elmbridge.  Yours is the second instance in the past week that I know of in TD & WG where a locked shed has been broken into and it's hard to know what else one can reasonably do to protect one's stuff.  Were the bikes marked?

Meanwhile, still no further instances of car crime in our area posted on Twitter by Surrey Police when I looked just now.

Yes they were both marked and registered with the Specialized. They were also locked together with a gold standard lock which I can't see lying around so they must have had to take both together. Guessing they might have had a van as they woudl be awkward to carry any distance. 

very sorry to hear what happened to you. Keep an eye on ebay and gumtree just in case.

Yes already got my triggers setup on ebay and monitoring Gumtree. But if anyone see's any brand new looking Specializsed bikes, please let me know. My wifes was only 5 weeks old, black with white cable covers and some white graffics, mine was all black, mavic rims, commuting type tyres and Easy handle bars with Specialized bar ends. 
I am sure that they must have been watching the house as ours was the only shed to be broken into and it would have not have been easy to them to get them away given they would be locked together, and our house is not on the end so they woudl have to go past the backs of 4 houses to make their getaway. Now fighting the insurance company. 

I saw a Tweet from from Elmbridge beat, "A number of pedal cycle thefts in Thames Ditton over the weekend. PCSO Richard Platt will be visiting the victims today and giving advice."

Not sure if a 'number' means your two, or if other people had thefts too.  

Did the bikes have frame numbers? It is worth registering the theft with this site: http://www.bikeshepherd.org/

Thanks for this and I will register the frames with the shepherd. Would be good to see Richard tonight as it feels targetted and not opportunist.

I keep hearing of more bicycles being stolen recently around Thames Ditton. Perhaps a warning on the main page is due?

I've just freshened up the warning I put there on 14 July (which included bikes) to keep it at the top.

See also: http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2096540_cctv_appeal_after_string_of_cycle_thefts

I spoke to the police today regarding the incident and apparently on the same night there were several other break-ins including other sheds, a garage and cars, 3 in Angel Road and one near the newsagents in Thorhill Road. A mini crime spree. 

Add this datelined today: http://www.elmbridgeguardian.co.uk/news/9155440.Bungling_teens_jailed_for_botched_robbery/
"Stevey Mackay, 19, was driving a stolen motorbike when he and Warsame carried out the attempted robbery on December 29, last year.....On June 27, Mackay, of Queens Road, Thames Ditton, was found guilty by a jury at Kingston Crown Court of attempting to rob courier John Brooker and of stealing a Suzuki SV650 motorbike from Kingston earlier in the day. He was sentenced to four years in prison by Kingston Crown Court on July 18.  "

Let's hope there's no more of these incompetent criminal brothers on the loose! I mean seriously, what the hell's wrong with that family?

Fourth brother faces jail!! (http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/9455738.Madingley_hero_faces_jail/)

inevitable

I see that his defence council (not named) in mitigation likens him to flawed figures in history, literature and the performing arts.

You can add football to that list of inspirational characters.Oh, and rugby, cricket too.

might be a generalisation here but i notice whenever a youngster gets "sent down" these days, they are always described as " a promising young footballer "

And so it continues... Thames Ditton man denies £20,000 robbery (http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/10145093.Man_denies___20_000_burglary/)

What's the story?

Isn't that the same Thames Ditton family that recently had I think three sons in jail on serious convictions?  Repeat offenders IIRC.

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/archive/2011/08/15/News+Croydon/9196282.Kidnapping_monsters_get_their_comeuppance/

nice