By Luke Voogt
Geelong police will look to step up night-time patrols to combat a recent surge in residential and commercial burglaries in Newtown and on Pakington Street.
Detective Sergeant Gavin Mullins described the number of burglaries over past few weeks as “unusually high”.
“We’re trying to increase nightshift patrols pending on what other operational requirements we have,” the High Volume Crime Unit detective said.
Det Sgt Mullins said thieves had broken into 35 homes in Newtown during the past month.
“They’re targeting jewellery, cash, personal documents, such as passports, and keys to vehicles,” he said.
“There are some houses that are being broken into with garden tools that have been left around.”
While the residents were “absolutely not” encouraging the burglaries, Det Sgt Mullins urged them conceal or lock away their valuables.
He recommended residents consider a secure safe.
“But if it’s not mounted to a floor or wall it’s, basically, a handy receptacle for crooks to walk away with property.”
Alarms, security cameras and locked doors could help, he said.
“We’ve have a number of cases where the alarm has been activated and the offenders have left the house after only entering a metre or so.”
Det Sgt Mullins urged anyone who sees suspicious activity to phone triple zero.
“There seems to be quite a problem with people calling triple zero,” he said.
“There’ve been plenty of times where people have posted things on (social media) before calling triple zero, which is totally counter-productive.
“We look at offenders breaking into homes as very high on the list of things we want to hear of.”
Burglars have targeted dozens of businesses in Pakington Street during the past month.
“Offenders generally target cash in computer equipment,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it’s not too different from other spates (of crimes) we’ve had in previous years.”
Geelong Senior Constable Andrew King earlier this year called on traders to adopt a ‘no cash’ strategy, which he said helped reduce crime drastically in Ocean Grove.
The initiative involved Geelong West stores displaying empty till inserts in street front windows and posting signs stating that no cash was held on the property.
“It’s something we’ve communicated with them before,” Det Sgt Mullins said.
“There is definite evidence when (criminals can see) there’s no cash on premises that those businesses are left alone.”
Police were searching for additional security footage and witnesses, Det Sgt Mullins said.
He said burglars had also targeted clothing and alcohol.
He urged with anyone with information to phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
