Who's eyeing up your house?

Police statistics indicate that there has been a recent rise in domestic burglary in the two Council areas and the respective CSPs have joined forces to stage a joint response to this undesirable trend.

The campaign message “Who’s Eyeing up Your House” will be circulated in a number of neighbourhoods across the Ballymoney and Moyle areas via a leaflet drop and poster campaign.

The campaign aims to encourage people to become more vigilant in and around their property and neighbourhoods and to share information that may help reduce the opportunity for any occurrence or reoccurrence of the crime on their community.

“By raising awareness we are hoping that people will more readily report relevant information directly to the Police or anonymously through Crimestoppers,” said Bridgeen Butler from Moyle CSP.

Crimestoppers, the national charity, has been successfully fighting crime for 21 years and the service has been operating in Northern Ireland for ten years. It is not, as many people think, linked to the police. It is a charity, which provides a telephone service for people to call when passing on information about crime. Crimestoppers' anonymity promise, which has never been broken, means that no personal details are taken from the caller, no calls are traced or recorded and people are not required to give evidence in court. Only the information about the crimes is passed onto the relevant authorities.

Speaking at the launch, Bryan Edgar, Chairperson on Ballymoney Community Safety Partnership said: “Domestic burglary is a very intrusive crime - as well as the damage and loss it causes to property, burglary impacts on the sense of safety and heightens the fear of crime. Crimestoppers is an invaluable tool in helping us to tackle crime within our community.”

He added: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the PSNI for their support with this campaign and also the Humberside Police, who provided the artwork for the leaflets and posters. This demonstrates a positive example for partnership working in addressing crime”.

Anyone with information about domestic burglary should contact Crimestoppers using the 0800 555111 number on the campaign leaflets and posters.