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9:10am Monday 6th February 2012 in News
AN ELDERLY couple have been left terrified after being burgled twice in one week.
Officers believe it was the same callous thief responsible for both burglaries which happened while the pensioners were at home.
Now police in Southampton have urged anyone with information to come forward.
During the first break-in, the intruder crept into the married couple’s home in Laundry Road, Southampton, while they were upstairs.
The victim said he had been out pruning the garden earlier in the morning and had put his gardening scissors in his coat pocket, which he hung up by the door.
But when he went downstairs the scissors had moved, keys were missing and the patio door key had been flung in the garden.
A change bottle from the living room with £100 in coins was stolen as well as a small torch worth about £21.
Just days later the pair became victims for the second time.
The thief only fled when the 67-year-old pensioner intervened.
It happened at about 10.15pm when the couple, who were in their living room, heard a loud banging noise coming from the garden.
One of the pensioners went to the window where he saw a man heading towards his home.
He shouted out to the intruder causing him to run off.
Two sheds had been forced open and a garden fork and five tool boxes were taken and thrown over the back fence.
The suspect is described as a white male dressed in a light blue and white striped hoodie.
Anyone with information about the burglaries on both Friday, January 20 between 10.15am and 10.30am and Friday, January 27, should call PC David Wheeler on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Comments(7)
Totton Ric
says...
9:59am Mon 6 Feb 12
charlar
says...
11:30am Mon 6 Feb 12
Scrutinizer
says...
11:54am Mon 6 Feb 12
Goldenwight
says...
12:17pm Mon 6 Feb 12
Scrutinizer wrote:Should that last sentence read 'Incarceration' or 'Incineration'? The latter would be far more effective...
According to a couple of members of the local community police force in Totton, whom I know and have spoken to very recently, there has been a significant increase in house and vehicle burglary in the last few months. They tell me it's just as bad in other places in Hampshire, eg. Southampton etc. The courts need to stop treating these criminals with kid gloves though, and punish them properly where it hurts. Small fines and 'Community Service Orders' appear to be no deterent for many criminals whatsoever. Certainly for repeat offenders, I believe a regime of hard labour with progressively longer-term periods of incarceration should be used. If it costs more money, too bad, needs-be-as-needs must. I'm by no means against rehabilitation programmes in prisons either, but the FIRST and MAIN priority should ALWAYS be the protection of law-abiding people and their property. Inceration of these criminals is the most obvious tool to use to achieve that in the short-term, and short-term counts a heck of a lot for most of us!
Scrutinizer
says...
12:56am Tue 7 Feb 12
Goldenwight wrote:"Incineration" might well be more appropriate actually, yeah! ;-)
Scrutinizer wrote: According to a couple of members of the local community police force in Totton, whom I know and have spoken to very recently, there has been a significant increase in house and vehicle burglary in the last few months. They tell me it's just as bad in other places in Hampshire, eg. Southampton etc. The courts need to stop treating these criminals with kid gloves though, and punish them properly where it hurts. Small fines and 'Community Service Orders' appear to be no deterent for many criminals whatsoever. Certainly for repeat offenders, I believe a regime of hard labour with progressively longer-term periods of incarceration should be used. If it costs more money, too bad, needs-be-as-needs must. I'm by no means against rehabilitation programmes in prisons either, but the FIRST and MAIN priority should ALWAYS be the protection of law-abiding people and their property. Inceration of these criminals is the most obvious tool to use to achieve that in the short-term, and short-term counts a heck of a lot for most of us!Should that last sentence read 'Incarceration' or 'Incineration'? The latter would be far more effective...
SPIKEISLANDTRADER
says...
8:10am Tue 7 Feb 12
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elvisimo says...
9:54am Mon 6 Feb 12
only point in your reporting - "elderly" couple? You then say they guy was 67 years old -not exactly old. Report the facts and stop the over dramatisation.