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A resident of Winston Rd N16 asked for this email conversation with the police to be made available to you all: (From the Green Lanes TRA)

“A man purporting to be a roofer knocked at my door today approx 11.30am and said that water from my roof was leaking onto the roof of the next house. This could not be so as a reliable builder checked my roof two weeks ago. The guy insisted, then said he would do the job for £4.50. Then he said that he would do it for free. Then he asked if he could put his ladder up against the wall to gain access to the roof. I later asked my neighbour and she said nothing wrong with her roof or anything else to her knowledge. The man was white, probably 25-35, medium height and with a tooth brace of sorts.”

Did you report this at the time? This would have been worth calling 999 or 101 for.

It is likely that this may have been a distraction burglary attempt (which I think you are probably aware of).

My colleagues who I work with are currently running a burglary prevention initiative around the Christmas period, I have provided the Green Lanes business association email address greenlanesn16@gmail.com so that the details can be forwarded onto residents. This will include multiple meetings offering crime prevention advice. I’ll speak to them and ask them to include advice around distraction burglaries.

In short the advice is not to let anyone into your home pretending to be a work man unless they can provide valid credentials. And even then the best policy is that if they don’t have an appointment/ you’re not expecting them, they’re not coming in!

There is also units being tasked with targeting suspected burglars and plain clothes units assigned to patrol burglary hot spots. So just to reassure you there are a lot of resources focussed on this issue at the moment which I believe has resulted in a overall drop.

Do you recall anything else about the man who visited you?

Did he have any accent?

What clothes was he wearing?

What build was he?

What do you mean by medium height (as different people have different ideas of what is a medium height, I think actual medium height is actually quite short)

Was he carrying anything?

Did you see any car that he came from/went to?

Did you see him speak to anyone else?

Thanks

PC Dan Brennan

19:00 on Monday 10th December 2018

Yorkshire Grove Community Hall, 20 Gunstor Road, N16 8HF