Britain: Police Break Into Homes; Lecture People About Burglary Risks
June 28th, 2011I didn’t believe that this was real. I thought that some hoax had been picked up by a tabloid newspaper and that it was off to the races from there.
Nope. It’s real. This is the ‘Operation Poppins’ page on the London Metropolitan Police website.
Via: The Sun:
COPS are breaking into homes in a dramatic bid to highlight the risk of being a victim of burglars.
Police from Fortune Greens Safer Neighbourhood Team in West Hampstead, north London, are climbing through windows left open to alert residents to the sinister threat.
Officers are carrying out the mock raids in a high-profile initiative to slash the number of burglaries.
They are committing break-ins across their patch, locking up the property and leaving a calling card to notify the stunned owner that they were there.
A young woman on her own was startled when a uniformed cop strolled into her living room after clambering in through an open bedroom window.
Police said that after her initial shock she was grateful when they gave her crime prevention advice and tips on making her home safer.
That’s bizarre and illegal. I don’t care if the cop had the best of intentions they are not above the law. What they did is an invasion of privacy. A person’s home is their castle and nobody wants a cop doing a warrant-less search of their home. There is no need to be breaking into people’s houses like that. They could of left a warning in the person’s mailbox about their lack of security rather than break into a person’s house.
wow this can’t be serious.
If I was a robber I would simply dress as a cop and safely break into homes..
ha, that’s it: they are phishing for criminals. hoping someone will be smoking pot or watching the illegal kind of porn and “oops” we got ’em, boys. nuts.
they can only do this in the UK because guns are illegal… i doubt cops in the US would try that. too many would get shot.
@neologiste
british, yes and yes…