Wyndham police are calling on residents to lock up their properties following recent home burglaries where thieves entered through unlocked doors.
Senior Constable Kellie Innes said there were two home robberies in Point Cook last week in which thieves entered through unlocked back doors. People were at home during both burglaries.
Senior Constable Innes said that despite a fall in home burglaries across Wyndham, of those that had occurred there were a growing number where thieves entered properties through unlocked doors.
She said Point Cook properties in particular were the target of overnight burglaries, with thieves usually gaining access through garages, laundry doors or backyard sliding doors.
“We’ve seen a drop in residential burglaries over the past month – retail premises, factories and houses under construction are more likely to be targeted than [established homes],” she said.
“We just ask people to keep everything locked. If you keep it locked, thieves won’t be able to get in.
“The vast majority of burglaries occur during the day when no one is home, because burglars really don’t want to get caught. They only want to go in quietly at night if it is very easy.
“Those night-time ones are rare, extremely rare.”
A survey by insurer RACV found that one in 25 Williams Landing properties was broken into during the 2013-14 financial year, making it Melbourne’s equal top burglary hotspot alongside Ardeer.
The figures, based on Victoria Police crime statistics and Census data, reveal the average number of homes burgled across Victoria was one in 73.
RACV’s general manager of home services, Peter Brindley, said it was the third consecutive year in which Williams Landing had featured prominently in the top 10 of most-burgled suburbs, a list that has been dominated by suburbs across the west and north.
“The best way to avoid the financial cost and emotional trauma of a burglary is prevention,” Mr Brindley said.
“Awareness of security should be a habit, not just an occasional thought.”
