A police sergeant has urged people to protect their homes from an expected “massive” rise in burglaries ahead of the clocks going back.
Sgt Ken McNish from the Met’s east area command covering Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge called on households to lift, lock and remove.
“When the clocks go back and the nights draw in we always see a massive increase in residential burglaries. Suspects target homes left in darkness and that look unoccupied,” Sgt McNish said.
He explained there are various methods to make homes less attractive to would be thieves, including alarm boxes and CCTV.
“The number one point of entry is still the front door,” he added.
He urged people to make sure they secure the front door properly by lifting the handle to engage the lock and remove the key.
The officer recommended contacting safer neighbourhood teams to find out more about MetTrace which is an invisible property-marking solution used by police to identify if something has been stolen.
The clocks go back on Sunday, October 25.
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