There has been a recent spate of burglaries in Grahamstown, with six incidents having occurred in Cross Street alone over the last two weeks. Having your house broken into is a horrible experience, and going through the process of reporting the incident can be difficult.
There has been a recent spate of burglaries in Grahamstown, with six incidents having occurred in Cross Street alone over the last two weeks. Having your house broken into is a horrible experience, and going through the process of reporting the incident can be difficult.
It’s 3am and you wake up to a crash in your kitchen. You run downstairs to find that your house has been broken into. You press the panic button, and your alarm company comes charging in to check the property to try and find the burglars and find out how they got in. But what happens after they leave?
First things first – phone the police. Although it is unlikely that an inspector will come to the house to take fingerprints at 3am, it is still necessary to report burglaries as soon as possible. It will mean that as soon as the inspectors arrive for work they will come round to take fingerprints. Therefore it is unlikely that too many people will have touched the items that were touched by the burglars, and it is more likely that fingerprints will be found.
If you aren’t sure if anything was stolen, do not let this stop you from reporting the case. Entry without the occupant’s permission is a crime. Even opening a window without the occupant’s permission is illegal. So regardless of whether anything was stolen, it needs to be reported. Should you later find that something is missing, and suspect that it was stolen, you can report this to the police and it will be added to the case file.
Now that the case has been reported, you might look around and see that things are out of place. Perhaps the microwave has been moved, or doors that were closed before are now open. Maybe a mug that you had used the night before has been moved. You might even find that items that had been placed neatly have now been strewn across the room.
Your first instinct may be to tidy up. After all, you don’t want the inspector to think that you are a slob when he arrives later that morning. But whatever you do, do not touch anything.
The police require definite fingerprints to confirm who the burglar was, and what they refer to as fingermarks or smudges will not suffice. Fingerprints are caused by fingers being pressed against a smooth surface, and the sweat acts as ink which transferrs the print onto the surface.
Fingermarks are made when the sweat from the fingers is obstructed in some way, or if the surface on which it resides is not smooth. Most often, these occur when the surface is dusty or it wasn’t touched with sufficient pressure.
Other people’s fingerprints also obstruct those of the burglar. This means that the more people that touch the items that were touched by the burglars, the less likely it is that reliable fingerprints will be found. So leave your microwave where it is and leave the mug unwashed.
If you have items of clothing strewn around your room, feel free to move these if your obsessive compulsive tidying habits prevent you from leaving them be. But other than clothing, ensure that the objects that were touched by the burglars are handled as little as possible.
Following these simple steps should increase the chances of those responsible being caught.
