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Car insurance policyholders issued valuables reminder

31/05/07

Car insurance customers in the south-east of England have been reminded about the importance of leaving valuables at home when going on a hike.

The message has been sent out by local police constable Glyn Wildey after noting that a car park at Dinton Pastures in Hurst, which leads onto 350 acres of scenic parkland, was the scene of 35 vehicle contents thefts in 2006, reports the Maidenhead Advertiser.

Explaining the roots of the problem, Mr Wildey suggested that criminals had learnt from experience about the rich pickings in the car park and assumed that there will always be a fresh set of valuables to steal when new visitors arrive.

However, in recent months local police officers have been masterminding a crime reduction initiative in the area, which involves alerting car insurance customers and other visitors to the site's theft history and giving them tips on how to avoid becoming just another crime statistic.

Now, police have revealed that there have been three contents theft incidents reported at the car park since the turn of the year.

Commenting on this "significant decrease", Mr Wildey suggested that car insurance policyholders and other road users may now be appreciating the importance of keeping satellite navigation systems, laptops, mobile phones and other valuables at home.

"It may be that this is down to the message finally getting through to people that it is not safe to leave valuables in your car," he said.

"But we cannot be complacent. We will continue spending a lot of time reinforcing the message."

As some car insurance customers may not be aware, certain basic car insurance deals will not pay out on items stolen from within the vehicle itself.