12 January 2010

Neighbourhood Watch News

Protect Your Christmas Presents

Did you get a valuable present for Christmas, something that would attract a thief who broke into your home, or saw it sitting in your car? Neighbourhood Watch Tasmania President, Jan Dunsby, is urging people to mark their new presents so they can be identified by Police.

“ Some items are particularly attractive to thieves”, Ms Dunsby said, “Digital cameras, laptop computers, mobile phones, vehicle GPS systems and widescreen TVs are all popular with burglars. Neighbourhood Watch Tasmania recommends all valuable items should either be engraved or marked with a UV pen with their owner's driver licence number, with the letter T before it to denote Tasmania . This may deter thieves and will certainly help Police to return it to you if it is recovered by them . We should also make a note of the serial number and, if it's a particularly small item such as a piece of jewelry, take a close-up photograph of it.”

Ms Dunsby said that engravers can be borrowed from local Neighbourhood Watches. Contact details are on the Neighbourhood Watch Tasmania website at http://nhwtas.org.au/ , where there is also a form for keeping a record of valuable items which may be downloaded and printed out.