– There have been more residential burglaries – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country

– The worst thing is not what they got with them, but the insecurity you are left with afterwards, Ann-Britt Rognes tells news. – It shouldn’t be like that that you have to have cameras around every corner of the house just to be able to go away, says Rognes, who says she is cursed after having an electric car charger and car battery stolen. Close to the house wall From the road outside the property at Tåsen in Oslo, it is approximately 10 meters to the house wall, where the electric car charger and car battery were located in a closed cardboard box. Nevertheless, an unauthorized person managed to get both parts a week ago. – It is quite disgusting. They must have searched quite hard to find the only thing of value I’ve had lying around, she says. Rogens has previously spoken about the case to Nordre Aker Budstikke. In the box by the wall were both the car charger and the car battery. Photo: Amund Rotbakken-Gundersen – Significantly more thefts from homes In the Directorate of Police’s report “Criminal case processing in the police 2023”, the police state that there has been a marked increase in thefts. – Overall, significantly more thefts from homes, holiday homes, garages and sheds have been reported, they write in the report. A total of 16,100 such offenses were reported in 2023 across the country. This amounts to an increase of 21 per cent measured against 2022 and the four years before. The number is also significantly higher than the year 2019, one year before the pandemic took over the country and the number of reviews decreased. The graph shows statistics for different types of crime for profit from 2019 to 2023. Here you can see that theft from homes, storage rooms and garages is on the rise after a decline during the pandemic. Photo: Criminal case register Increasing trend The insurance companies news have also contacted reporting about a negative trend. According to Bjarne Aani Rysstad, communications manager at Gjensidige, the number of burglaries reported to private homes has increased massively since the pandemic years. Gjensidige’s statistics show that the number of burglaries increased by 70 per cent from 2021 to 2023. The average payout in these cases was NOK 40,000. Rysstad emphasizes that the pandemic was a special period with unusually low numbers of burglaries. According to him, for some reason, the borders were closed. But also in relation to the years before the corona took over the country, both Gjensidige and Tryg forsikring see that more and more people are getting unwanted visitors close to their house walls. – After a long period of time with a decrease in the number of burglary cases, we now see that the arrow is on the way up again. And it is an arrow that is on the way up in several areas, says Rysstad. Communications manager at Gjensidige, Bjarne Aani Rysstad. Photo: Mats Stordal / news Press manager at Tryg forsikring, Ole Irgens, reports that they see the same trend and predicts that more than 40,000 burglaries will be committed in private homes this year. – It is a very regrettable record. We haven’t had so many break-ins in private homes in almost 25 years, he says. He sees a ten percent increase in the number of burglaries in the first quarter of the year, compared to last year. Professional thieves According to Irgens, some of the burglaries are committed by gangs who are obviously professionals. – There have been more and more home burglaries. These are often gangs that scout the area and pick out attractive homes to break into, before they strike. Thieves are looking for valuable items that are easy to sell, so they look for houses that have signs that there are things to steal. To reduce the chance of burglary, Ole Irgens recommends thinking like a thief and making your home as least attractive to thieves as possible. Photo: Brynjar Mangor Myrtveit Osgjerd / news Expensive outdoor furniture, barbecues and garages with well-stocked contents are typical things that will catch the attention of a thief. Easily tradable valuables can be small electronic items, jewellery, branded clothing, and bicycles and e-bikes in particular are attractive targets. These thieves have several methods to determine whether people are home or not. – We know that they often put objects on the stairs by the entrance doors, for example pebbles, or a piece of tape on the door to see if it will be removed. If it is not removed, there is a clear path for breaking in. How to protect yourself Ole Irgens and Gjensidige see that the homes that do not experience break-ins are those equipped with alarms and cameras. – If you think like a thief, you are looking for the best possible working conditions when you go in, and an alarm that howls and screams, and a camera that records everything you do, that is not where the thief wants to be be at work, so to speak, says Irgens. Even though Ann-Britt Rognes has apparently done everything right, with a home alarm and marking this on the entrance gate, she received a visitor. It was only when she was going to charge the car that she realized the things were gone. The entrance gate to Ann-Britt is clearly marked with alarm monitoring. Photo: Amund Rotbakken-Gundersen – Now they didn’t get the big values ​​from here. Just a few thousand. It is still sad and a little scary to know that someone is prowling around here in the evening and at night, she says after the incident. Both Ole Irgens and Bjarne Aani Rysstad recommend allying with neighbours. – Be a bit alert even if, for example, the neighbor is awake. If something happens in the house while they are away, there may be a burglary in progress. Be reasonable, rather call the police once too many than once too few, and be a bit of a neighborhood watch so that we can help each other avoid these break-ins, advises Irgens. Published 17.06.2024, at 20.19 Updated 18.06.2024, at 19.09



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