PC TONY WILES WILY ADVICE

  DOGS and THEIR OWNERS Jan 2010 

Dogs and their owners - Over the Christmas holiday I took a walk from Weybridge on the Thames to Godalming in Surrey, following the towpath of the Wey navigation. During the course of the walk I became a little annoyed with dogs, or perhaps I should more accurately say with their owners. Several things caused this, firstly not everyone is happy to have large salivating dogs running towards them barking, not everyone is happy to be jumped up at and have the resulting mud and muck all over their clothes. Then there was the young family with two small children, one of whom fell over and ended up in a pile of dog mess, which got in his hair and all over his hands. On my way home that evening I called into see some friends who were bemoaning the fact that their son had ended up in a similar pile while playing rugby on a school playing field.

On returning to work several days later I found myself dealing with an incident of livestock worrying by dogs, which left six sheep dead.

Responsibility among some dog owners seems to be an issue, lets hope a more responsible attitude will evolve. Perhaps it could be a new years resolution.

Now to move onto something else - for those of you who live in Borough Green and Platt you may have been aware of a number of house Burglaries in the run up to Christmas. A couple of offenders were caught making off from a burglary in West Malling and at the time of writing this article, one has been charged with burglary with a further 18 offences to be taken into consideration. These offences were committed in Borough Green, Platt, West Malling and the Sevenoaks areas. He was not a local man and should now be out of circulation for a number of years. Great news to start off the new year.

Many of Tony's messages are valid always, so rather than replace them with the latest warning, I am saving older ones below 

==============================================

METAL THEFT Sept 2009

Theft of metal - I have written about this before and since my last article the thefts have become more ingenious and daring. The demand for and price of scrap metal has remained high and until it drops I fear that this is a problem, which will not be going away. I have visions of the offenders reading the FT with their morning cuppa and deciding what metals to target that day.

We are all aware of the age-old crime of stealing lead off church roofs, a problem that has escalated over the last 12 months. What you may not be aware of are some of the other ways they now target copper and lead. Electric companies often have to take you offline if they are carrying out major work in the area, to keep you supplied with power large generators are placed in your neighbourhood. These are targeted at an alarming rate as they are connected to the grid with temporary copper cables. When the cables get stolen you loose your power. In some places electric companies have to put 24hrs security on the generators to stop this happening.

Recently another method has come to light where the criminals are targeting roadside manholes, often in broad daylight to get at underground communications cabling. The cable will be cut at one manhole and then pulled out of another several hundred yards away. To the casual passer-by someone working in a manhole with a high viz jacket on may not look out of place, but look again, be sure. Are there any BT or other appropriately marked company vehicles parked nearby. If a tatty looking van is pulling the cable out with its tow bar then something could be wrong.

If you are at all unsure or feel that something is wrong then give the police a call and we will check it out.

==============================================

CANNABIS

Some years ago I was visiting a friend in Holland, a country that is well known for its liberal views on cannabis, but I was a little surprised one evening to find my friend rolling a joint which he cheerfully told me he was making to take to his grandfather in hospital. I was more concerned on arrival back at Stansted airport as I watched an excited drug sniffing spaniel leaping all over the bags in the baggage reclaim area as it dawned on me that my bag had been under the table where I had seen the joint being made, could anything have fallen in, luckily not but I looked a little nervous.