British Council-Crime
Transcript of the podcast
Interviewer: Good afternoon. Today on Crime Check we are going to talk about “repeat victims”, people who are victims of crime more than once. First of all we bring you the sad story of Ruth and Harold Saunders from Hull, who have had their house burgled no fewer than eight times in the last ۳ years. Worth an entry in the Guinness Book of Records you might think, but for Ruth and Harold, it’s no joke. Ruth, why do you think you’ve been burgled so many times
Ruth: I wish I knew. It’s a nightmare. We bought this house because it looks out onto the playing fields and we thought it was the perfect house for our retirement
Interviewer: When were you first burgled
Ruth: Oh, three years ago, just a week after we had moved in. It was as if the burglars were waiting for us
Interviewer: Do you feel sorry that you moved there now
Ruth: Oh definitely. If we had known we were going to have this sort of trouble, we wouldn’t be living here we would chosen somewhere safer. But now we can’t even sell the house because everyone knows the burglars like it! No one will buy it. We can’t escape from this neighbourhood. We’re just waiting for the next breakin
Interviewer: Do you know who the burglars are
Ruth: We think so, but we can never prove anything. You see, people can watch the house from the playing fields, and there are a number of youths who we see watching the house. They hang around there smoking in the afternoons. I’m frightened to go to the shops in case they break in while I’m away
Interviewer: Have you tried calling the police
Ruth: Yeah, several times, but these youths always get away by running into the woods on the other side of the playing fields, and the police don’t bother to go after them
Interviewer: And what have you had stolen
Ruth: Oh all sorts of things on different occasions. They never take much, but they always seem to come back. They’ve taken the television twice. If we’d known they were going to come back, we wouldn’t have bought a new television after the first burglary, but a week after we bought it, the burglars broke in again
Interviewer: What else have they taken
Ruth: Oh, apart from the television and the video, nothing very valuable, but then we don’t have anything else which is very valuable. It’s annoying really, and they do a lot of damage when they break in. I sometimes think we should leave a door open. If we left the door open, at least they could come in without doing any damage
Interviewer: So what are you going to do about this situation
Ruth: What can we do about it? We’d be happier if we’d stayed in our old house. If we still lived there, I’m sure we wouldn’t have been burgled once. We were there for forty years without a single problem
Interviewer: Marylyn Brookes, you are Chief Crime Prevention Officer for South Yorkshire police. Is there really nothing they can do
CPO: No, there are things they can do though I must say first that I do feel sorry for them
Interviewer: Well, what can they do
CPO: If I were them, I’d have had a burglar alarm put in straightaway. In fact, I’m surprised the insurance company hasn’t insisted on that already
Ruth: Well, they have said that but we can’t afford one of those! We only have our pension, and burglar alarms cost thousands of pounds
CPO: Well, have you thought of putting a burglar alarm box on the wall? That puts some thieves off. Also, you should talk to the neighbours and ask them to keep an eye on your home when you’re out
Interviewer: But why do the burglars keep coming back to the Saunders’ house? I mean eight times is a lot, isn’t it
CPO: Well, there are several things here. Obviously it is easy to watch the house from the playing fields, and also burglars tend to talk amongst themselves. They tell each other which houses are easy to break into, and what things the houses still have in them. Also they wait a few months until they think the owners have replaced the things that were stolen. After all, burglars prefer to steal something that’s brand new. And another thing you have to consider is
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