Burgled twice in three months, Police fails to attend in reasonable time

An Auckland family, who has become a victim of two burglaries in the last three months, has expressed their dissatisfaction with the actions taken by the police.

Lavanya Devaraj Mohan, 35, lives with her husband and two kids on May Road in Mt Roskill, Auckland.

On Monday, February 20, her house was burgled the second time in a span of three months and goods worth $8,000 were taken away.

“I came back home from work at 6:30 p.m. and saw the room window was broken and the whole house [turned] upside down. The beds were ripped off, every cupboard and drawers were opened, clothes were thrown on the floor, [and the] suitcases [were] slashed,” Ms Mohan said.

“Of the things taken by the burglars were an iPad, a laptop, Xbox, a Tag Heuer watch worth $6,000 alone, and our documents from the bag including passports of the whole family. My husband and I are on a temporary visa here, and it will take at least a couple of thousand dollars to get new passports and visa stamps for the whole family.”

Ms Mohan said she called the police at 6:45 p.m. on Monday, 15 minutes after she returned home, but the police did not turn up and instead sent a forensics team the next morning.

“It took me about 15 minutes just to speak [to] the police on 111 to report the incidence of burglary on Monday evening,” she added.

The forensic team did not find much evidence from the scene examination and advised her to install cameras and other safety equipment.

Burglars had previously broken into her house in November 2016 by entering through the bathroom window. At that time, some neighbours had seen three intruders leaving the property with goods. Ms Mohan said that the police had not done enough in either apprehending the burglars or deterring future incidents in the area.

“Even last year, the police had failed to arrive at the scene on the same day and had sent the forensic team the next morning. They took many pieces of evidence, fingerprints of the burglars, but so far no progress has been made to the case,” she said.

She added that the total loss incurred by her in these two burglaries amounts to $15,000 and she has had no luck from the insurance company.

Her previous request to claim insurance was declined a couple of weeks ago based on the police assessment that they had left the bathroom window open.

“It took two-and-a-half months for [the insurance company] to assess our claim and decline it eventually, which obviously frustrated us the most, and I decided to get rid of my insurance company just two weeks ago only to be burgled again without any content insurance in place,” Ms Mohan said.

She added that another house in the same neighbourhood had been burgled some 10 days ago.

In August 2016, the then Police Minister Judith Collins had declared burglaries as priority offence and to be immediately attended by the police.

The minister had then acknowledged that a police attendance at a burglary “would send a clear message to the offenders,”

The public was assured of full police attendance, where a crime officer or a constabulary would attend the crime scene within a reasonable time.

However, Ms Mohan says the police failed to respond in both cases. 

However, in this case, police failed to turn up at the burgled house and apparently “no message was sent to the offenders,” thus resulting in a second burglary within three months.

If you have similar experiences, please share your stories on editor@indianweekender.co.nz.