FIRST: AN ISSUE WITH A BOGUS BUILDER
16/4 - 23/4 Hungerford Drive. The householder was approached by a young man he knew. The lad explained that there were some damaged tiles on the roof, which needed to be fixed immediately. He asked for £1,250 up front for materials. He also asked the householder to sign a document, though he doesn’t know what it was. The householder went to his bank and withdrew the cash. The next day 2 other men turned up saying they worked with the first lad. They needed £1,850 - in cash. Once again, the householder went to his bank, withdrew the money and handed it over. No work was yet done.
The next day the men arrived and asked for another £850, but asked the householder to go to another branch of his bank to withdraw the money. He did this, going to Marlow and handed over the cash.
Yesterday, he left home to go shopping and saw a ladder propped up against the house and a man working on the roof. By now he felt very intimidated and dialled 999. The police attended immediately and questioned the man on the roof. He explained he was the brother of the first lad and had been asked to carry out some work that day. He had an additional invoice for £1,250. When the police checked the company name and address - neither existed !
This is a classic case. - Bogus builders generally work this way. Cash is handed over and very little work - or very poor quality work is carried out.
If you see a builders van / skip outside an elderly neighbour’s house. Please let us know. We will not reveal that you have called, but will ‘happen’ to walk past and ask them what they are having done. We will then check the paperwork, to make sure all is in order.
Use the TVP website to report anything like this to us online.
NEXT: I have had this request in from our Local CID, who deal with burglaries:
Hi
It has come up in our team meetings that a lot of CCTV enquiries conducted by our team, relies heavily on police / case investigators, knowing how to work peoples’ individual CCTV.
Clearly there are so many systems out there that this is extremely difficult.
Is there some sort of press release we can put out, to identify this issue and encourage people / businesses, to familiarise themselves with the working of their systems, so that if something happens - they can download appropriate footage ?
Marion
Local CID
Job Done !
Speaking to the burglary team, I was asking if there are any particular trends we need to be aware of re burglaries. They state that most are through rear patio doors. When they visit victims, they have good and adequate protection on the front - security lights / video doorbells, possible CCTV, but rarely similar levels of protection at the rear. SO - if you have a security camera on the rear of your property, consider replacing it with a ‘Guard Cam’ A Guard cam looks exactly like a security light, but has a camera inside. Every time the beam is broken, the floodlight comes on and the camera records - very similar to a video doorbell. The advantage over traditional CCTV is that when activated, the floodlight comes on and the footage is recorded in full colour HDD ! There are various versions, depending upon the price. The basic models require your ability to access the lamp, as it has a memory card inside, which records the footage - camera SDRam cards. If anything happens you need to be able to remove the card and download the footage into a computer. The more expensive models send the footage directly to your computer / mobile phone.
To purchase on, go online and type in ‘Guard Cam’. They are brilliant !
I have just been viewing more Doorbell Camera footage. It was brilliant. It shows a young lad in a hoody, protecting his face, going up to two cars on a driveway. He looks into the rear of each car with a torch, then tries the car door handles. As both were locked and have nothing left on display, he then just walks off. The householder, would never know they had been the target of an opportunist thief, without the footage !!!
CRIME
MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:
maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukNO CRIME TO REPORT.
RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MAIDENHEAD WEST
maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
20/4 - 23/4 Sunday 8 a.m. / Tuesday 3 p.m. Partridge Mead. Flowers pulled up from the end of a driveway and thrown on the ground.
MAIDENHEAD SOUTH
maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.ukBOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:
23/4 - 24/4 Tuesday 9.30 p.m. / Wednesday 7 a.m. Clare Road. White Mercedes Sprinter van index KU ** EEH was stolen from the road near the owner’s house.
OLDFIELD & BRAY:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
The unauthorised encampment has moved out of the area.
