Family Home Burgled 7 Times in Less Than 2 Years

Today's Herald is carrying a very sad story about the Renaud family of Glen Innes whose home has been burgled 6 times and their car broken into once whilst it was parked on the driveway.

The thefts started less than a year after they moved into their home in 2007.

The lone parent, who has 2 young children, has spent over $5,000 on an alarm system and increased security measures but still her home has been targeted: so far this year it's been burgled 4 times in four months.

When the paper questioned the police they said they had no knowledge of the break-ins at the home but that burglaries in the area had dropped in the past few months. Could that be because they're not recording them all?

The statistics for 2008 showed a shocking increase in burglaries.

Burglaries increased by 12.3% in 2008
The Auckland district crime statistics show that there were 6,306 recorded burglaries in dwellings during the 2008 calendar year, an increase of 12.3% over the previous year. That's a rate of 150 offences per 100,000 of the population)

Resolution rate of 10.5%
Of those crimes of 661 were resolved - that's a resolution rate of only 10.5% (about the same as the previous year)

It will be interesting to see how the figures for 2009 pan out, there's already been an alarming jump in the number of armed robberies reported by the press in the Auckland region this year, I can't imagine that house burglaries have dropped in the same time period.

Meanwhile families like the Renauds get by as best they can but one has to wonder if they police could do more to protect them, or to catch those responsible.