Everything is quiet in the village on the crime front. However their is one scam afoot in the area at large. An unknown white male is selling ‘leather’ jackets, possibly from door to door, at vastly inflated prices. These jackets have been found to be of a material other than leather, and the police are keen to put a stop to this deception.

There has been no occasion recently to make use of the ‘phone’ tree but please make sure that you have the numbers of your down-line contacts at hand just in case.

01/05/2001

I am pleased to report that everything has been reasonably quiet during the last two months with only one lawnmower being stolen. This gave us the chance to put into action the "phone tree". Don't forget to keep your set of numbers handy by the telephone so you can improve the speed of communication of the message as this is the most important part of the whole exercise. The recent event only serves to confirm the importance of ensuring your sheds and garages are kept securely locked and ideally alarmed. Most of us are aware of home security but fail to ensure all the outbuildings are secure as well. Don't forget also outside lighting. Burglars don't like being illuminated. If you use low energy lamps the cost of running outside lights amount to no more than 2p a week for all night illumination and as the village hasn't any streetlights if we all provide one light on at night time it will deter the uninvited guests!

01/11/00

About a week ago, I received an automatic message from the Police about a bogus house-to-house caller. This seems to be a recurring threat. The month of September produced a list of various offences, the nearest of which was Cockfield, where there was a daytime burglary and cycle theft. There was the usual sprinkling of crime involving motor vehicles at Lavenham and Long Melford.

01/09/00

I put a notice on the Village Hall notice board about leaflet droppers offering gardening work. This has been followed by burglary in some cases. I would welcome any information and or description of persons or vehicles who you might suspect as being involved in this. During the summer weather please take care about leaving open windows, doors and car windows. Each month the Police send me a list of the crimes committed in the Babergh area. In July it listed 14 crimes, of which 5 involved vehicles, 6 involved sheds or gardens ( eg cycles, garden urns etc. ). There were 2 house break-ins among the 14 crimes.

01/07/00

Once again, the crime in the Babergh area seems to involve vehicles however there was a raid on the telephone kiosk at Great Green, Cockfield. Fortunately, things are generally very quiet in our village with no reported crimes during the last 2 months. But still stay vigilant and keep your house and all outbuildings securely locked whenever possible.

01/03/00

Recently the Police have launched an attack on car crime in general and advise us to have our car windows etched to aid identification. The Bury area has suffered a catalogue of theft of and damage to cars and their contents in recent weeks. Looking through the results for the Babergh area over the last few months this trend also appears to be in this area notably in Acton and Long Melford.

01/01/00

Trouble appears to be dangerously close to our village. At the beginning of December a grey Ford Granada disgorged 6 Eastern Europeans, smartly dressed with short dark hair. They entered a Farm Shop in the Lavenham Area and diverted the occupants while jewellery was stolen from their house. The Police asked me to remind you to continue to be vigilant as this is the time of year for bogus officials to be active calling at peoples' houses.

If you are intending to be away at any time please ensure that the house continues to look like it is occupied by either a time switch operating a light at night or using a low energy light which you could leave on all the time. Place the light around a corner so it cannot be seen from any windows.

Watch out also for the police crackdown on speeding motorists, as now we have a30 mph limit in the village they will be visiting from time to time to catch us out!

01/09/99

Crime in our area seems to have diminished in the last few weeks, when only 2 burglaries occurred in the Sudbury area. No cars were stolen, except a Ford Sierra in Acton, but some items have been taken from cars. The Church at Cockfield was attacked in some way and the telephone box in Blacksmiths Lane was broken into.

All the incidents except the latter were quite a distance from us, so let us hope this trend continues.

Vigilance is out best defence.

Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator

email: neighbourhoodwatch@thorpe-morieux.org.uk