Burglary peaks ‘coinciding with school runs’
If you live in west Cork it’s probable your house will be broken into from midnight to 4am, but there are also daytime thieves in the region.
Chief Superintendent Tom Hayes, who is in charge of policing west Cork, said that other peaks were also noticed on Tuesdays at 2pm, Wednesdays at 3pm and around 11pm on Thursdays and Fridays.
These peaks are likely to coincide while people are at work, shopping, on school runs or in pubs.
In north and east Cork night-time was also a factor but according to Chief Superintendent Kieran McGann gardaí in that region had noticed that burglars had taken an increased liking for 1pm to 2pm on Wednesdays.
Chief Superintendent Michael Finn, who oversees the city, said he’d noticed “hot spots” in his area apart from night-time, between 4pm and 5pm on Fridays, and 6pm to 11pm on Saturdays.
Chief Supt Finn added he and his two senior Garda colleagues were concerned householders were making it too easy for criminals. He said eight burglaries took place in a very short space of time in Ballincollig recently and none of the householders had their alarms turned on while they were out.
Chief Supt Hayes pointed out that many people would turn on their alarms at night, but would forget to do so when they went out during the day.
He added that in many cases there had been thefts of cars from outside houses because the owners were leaving their car keys on show in the hallway instead of taking them to their bedrooms when they went to sleep.
Chief Supt Hayes said gardaí in his area had also seen a rise in thefts from parked cars last month, including one incident when an elderly woman popped in for “a couple of minutes” to say a prayer in a church and had valuable items stolen from her parked car.
He said a lot of “opportunist criminals” were being presented with easy pickings because ordinary decent people were being lax about their security.
“Burglaries are on the rise again (in north and east Cork) and that is something we are concerned about. People should look at their alarm systems and make sure they’re turned on,” Chief Supt McGann said.
