Burglar ‘target’ markings appearing across town homes

8th November 2020

Scrawls and initials thought to be linked to a secret code used by burglars to identify ‘target’ homes for theft have been spotted on gate posts in Southport.

One worried resident shared images of her mother’s house which had been suspiciously daubed with a letter ‘A’ which bears a striking resemblance to similar ‘burglar codes’ which have appeared on a number of home security forums warning of thieves operating in the area.

Burglars will often take a look at a home before they carry out a crime. The more the thieves know about the house and its security, the more likely they are to rob the home successfully. 

But what is it that these potential thieves might want to find out about your home? 

Often, they’ll use a code of drawn symbols to mark up information on the house. That way, they know what they’re dealing with when they come back to the home.

Worried Southport resident Deb Nickeas said “just wanted everyone to be vigilant just incase its anything dodgy, you never know with the world we live in these days, its been cleaned off straight away but she took pictures 1st so she could post it on her private page.

“shes asked me to post it here aswell as she’s not a member yet, this is the highpark area guys keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious in this area or any other, its so close to Christmas now and the chancers will definitely be around thinking its okay to steal from people.”