We are asking communities to be vigilant following recent reported burglaries to outbuildings in Bamford and Castleton area on Monday night this week.

Any outbuilding such as sheds or garages, please consider the following crime prevention in relation to them and where they are located on your property.

Garden
• Keep your gates, fences and walls well maintained. Ideally these should be at least 2m high.
• Keep gates locked and position them close to the front of your house.
• Consider growing prickly plants around vulnerable areas such as windows, fences, walls and drainpipes.
• Use gravel for footpaths and driveways as it is noisy to walk on.
• Fit motion-sensor security lighting if possible.
• Use ties to secure hanging baskets to brackets.
• Fill the bottom of pots and planters with heavy stones.

Garage and shed
• If you do leave items of high value in your garage and shed, engrave or mark these items with your house number and postcode. Secure the items to the floor or leave in secured storage.
• Fit a good quality, substantial lock to the door for advice on these items visit https://soldsecure.com/
• Secure hinges with coach bolts and security screws.
• Invest in a shed alarm if possible.
• Screw windows shut, fit window locks and protective grills. Use curtains or netting to hide anything on view.
• Install low energy security lighting with motion sensors.

Valuables
• Put tools and equipment away after use.
• Chain large items, such as bikes, together.
• Lock ladders to a secure fixture to stop them being used for access.
• Photograph your valuable items to help recover them if they are stolen.
• Keep photographs of unusual or sentimental items. They can be used by police to find and trace stolen items

Please report Suspicious activity to police by the following contact methods:

🚓 101 in a non emergency
🚔 Visit https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/ and use the report tab
🚨 Message the main Derbyshire Police Facebook Page.