Gardening tips to deter would-be thieves (From Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News)

Gardening tips to deter would-be thieves

1:00pm Sunday 28th June 2009

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POLICE are helping Avon and Somerset residents combat crime…by encouraging them to take up gardening.

Gardens are often the first line of defence against crime as two-thirds of burglars break in via the back of a home.

Summer also sees an increase in thefts from gardens and sheds.

The value of property in gardens, sheds and garages is often more than people realise – items such as power tools, hand tools, sports equipment, cycles and toys.

The Crime and Disorder Partnership, with police, are providing people with ‘Scratch a Thief’ leaflets, offering advice and crime prevention tips for gardens, sheds and garages.

It includes easy and inexpensive tips people can do to improve garden security such as defensive planting and prickly bushes around drainpipes or beneath ground floor windows.

There is also advice on securing sheds, garages and gating and marking power tools with postcodes and house numbers.

These details can be placed on www.immobilise.com - a free register of ownership details.

Also permanently marking items by scratching or painting them will reduce their value to thieves.

Crime Reduction Officer Tony Alderman, from Taunton, said: “People can take very simple but effective crime reduction measures, which can have a dramatic effect on their property's overall security.

“Clever planting, padlocks on gates and sheds and motion sensor lights are inexpensive and effective.

“Garden tools are often used to assist the burglar breaking into a property - ladders, are particularly helpful to thieves for example, so keep them locked away.”

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