As Dunedin police try to tackle a recent spike in thefts from cars and house burglaries, they are reminding residents they are not wasting police time by reporting what they might think are minor incidents.
Reporting an incident, no matter how small, could help police with finding an offender and prosecuting them, Sergeant Tony Ritchie, the officer in charge of the Dunedin police intelligence section, said.
It was frustrating for police to arrive at a scene only to discover half a dozen other similar crimes which had gone unreported and then have to spend time trying to find complainants to match the crimes, he said.
Petrol was stolen from eight vehicles, and a stereo stolen from a ninth car, parked in a line at the side of Pine Hill Rd on Monday night.
The thefts followed similar offending in lines of parked cars in Brockville and Roslyn.
Sgt Ritchie said people should park their cars off the street if possible, and always call police if they heard or saw something that seemed suspicious.
"Police are not too busy for this. You are not wasting our time ringing us. This could well be happening to other people in other parts of town, too."
Police arrested two people last weekend they believed were connected to a spate of car break-ins around the city in recent weeks, and that offending had dropped off this week, Sgt Ritchie said.
However, there was now concern about house burglaries, particularly in South Dunedin.
On average, police received about 10 to 12 reports of house burglaries a week, but in the past few weeks that had jumped to about 18 a week.
There had also been an increase in the number of commercial burglaries.
"A lot of people think that burglaries happen at night, but, certainly these ones anyway, are mainly happening during the day."
He urged people to secure their property well and asked anyone who noticed anything suspicious at any time of the day to call the police.
