Burglar alert ahead of holidays

“Every community is at some risk,” comes the response from a local security expert when questioned over burglaries during the summer vacations that afflict residential communities.

As summer approaches and people pack up for the holidays, many are doing so with trepidation in their hearts, with stories circulating and community blogs abuzz with people reporting break-ins, with villas being the most obvious target across residential communities.

“I woke up in the middle of the night when I heard a small crash downstairs,” said 28-year-old Susan R, a Mirdiff resident, talking about a burglary in process in the villa she resides in, last week.

“I woke my husband up and both of us crept downstairs to find a man holding our DVD player in hand. I started to scream and the man dropped the player and made a beeline for the backdoor, which we later discovered had been jimmied with a screwdriver.”

With a shaking voice, Susan says she has been so traumatised since the incident that she can’t even sleep most nights.

Log on to Expatwoman.com and similar stories drawing reference to the Mirdiff neighbourhood again come to light.

While one draws reference to two separate residential villas robbed over a span of six years for one poster, another is as recent as last week.

Community member Mabel writes: “At about 3.30am this morning I awoke to find a burglar standing in my bedroom. The burglar got away; the police came quickly and have only just left the villa, taking fingerprints and photos of the point of entry, etc.

“I suppose it’s natural that I’m left feeling more than a little anxious and distressed. The question that I'd really like to answer is, was I just very, very unlucky to be one of a very few crime victims here or is burglary more common that I had realised?”

When a stranger comes calling Dubai Police records indicated thefts accounted for 1,804, or a staggering 72 per cent, of the 2,485 crime cases reported last year; many of these involved house burglaries.

“On average though, we install between 10 and 15 home intruder systems per month, as the need for such safety measures is on the rise,” said Ajay Dumbhare, security manager at the Dubai branch of the UK firm, Senator Security Services, which provides turnkey solutions for home automation and security requirements.

“These figures usually peak during the summer holiday months, mainly June to August, as most expats shut their homes and leave for the long haul.”

For Manjari Yug, her summer break of last year turned into a nightmare when upon returning from Kolkata, she discovered her home had been broken into.

“I used to live in the Old Pakistani Consulate area.

We returned home from the holidays only to find our wardrobes open and all my jewellery gone, along with the video camera and other precious things,” she said. “The police were called in and they took fingerprints and speculated the burglars had broken in through the small bathroom window that overlooked the outside corridor.

“I was called back to the police station three times to identify jewellery, but none of it was mine.”

Yug’s apartment wasn’t the only one broken into during that period, with four other tenants in the same building – several of whom had also gone away for the summer – discovering their homes had been robbed while they were
away.

Dumbhare says that villas are most vulnerable because the access points into the home are a lot easier to penetrate if alarm systems are not in place.

“We get a lot of inquiries from communities such as Emirates Hills and The Springs to install home intruder systems,” he said.

“In comparison, most new residential apartment blocks employ strict security measures to enter the building, with CCTV cameras installed and watchmen on guard. Which doesn’t mean that it can still not happen.”

Secure your home

Dumbhare said the best way to secure your home before you travel for the summer vacation and to ensure your basic safety, a home intruder alarm system is the ideal choice.

“The bare basic system, especially if you reside in a villa, should be cameras for your outside perimeter, along with motion sensors indoors, a gas leak detector and an indoor siren to alert the neighbours, should you be travelling when your house is broken into.”

While there are several companies in the emirate that can meet your home security solutions, an average cost of installing such a system ranges between Dh5,000 and Dh8,000.

“How the system works is that when your house is broken into, an alarm goes out to your phone with an SMS alert along with a call out. We ask for three contact persons if one cannot be reached and the numbers can include our company or even the police,” said Dumbhare. “Those call outs are usually at an additional charge that ranges between Dh300 andDh500.”

Popular solutions given by readers include keeping a dog at home to safeguard against intruders while you are in the house, possibly sleeping, while others have suggested

launching neighbourhood watches in the community and informing those who live around you to keep a close eye out for your home while you are travelling.

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