Copycat burglaries – youngsters pose as charity collectors

The schoolboy con artists have been abusing residents’ good nature by pretending to be collecting for charity or asking for help, then ransacking their victims’ homes.
There have been eight similar incidents in West Berkshire of young children conning their way into mainly elderly people’s homes.
In Thatcham in the past five weeks, there have been five distraction burglaries, with another in Newbury and two in the Kintbury and Hungerford areas.
At 4pm on Monday, January 7, a boy talked his way into the Bollingbroke Way home of an 83-year-old woman by saying that he was from Trinity School and was raising money for the RSPCA.
On the doorstep, the woman gave him £1, but the boy said that he wanted to lean on something to fill out his sponsorship form.
She let him into the hallway and he followed her into the lounge. The boy then claimed that he had lost his pen and the victim went to look for one. Meanwhile, he stole a purse containing £100 and cards.
In other incidents, burglars have claimed they were making collections for schools, for sports events or were collecting sponsorship for charity.
One youth has been arrested and bailed in connection with the most recent incident in Thatcham.
Det Sgt Emily Evans, from Newbury police, issued a warning to anyone thinking of taking part in copycat crimes and urged those with any information to come forward.
She said: “A message will be put out to the schools about copycats because we are dealing with these crimes very seriously and if there are more incidents then people need to know it will be dealt with as the lowest-of-the-low crime in terms of burglary.
“They will be treated very seriously by the courts – even if they are youths and it’s a first offence, they will go to prison.”
Det Sgt Evans said that even if people had given money to people knocking on doors, they were still victims of fraud.
She thanked those who had already come forward with information and asked people to inform elderly relatives and neighbours about the situation.
She added that she would particularly like to hear from anyone if they had been approached to get involved in this type of crime.