Crime up in December: Police record 24 burglaries in 13 days

Police say the spike spans from East to West in Grand Cayman with West Bay and Bodden Town registering the highest numbers and with the holidays on the horizon the R.C.I.P.S is encouraging residents to stay vigilant.
As Cayman heads into the holiday season, the R.C.I.P.S is sounding a warning.
“Even though its Christmas criminals don’t take a break, they still steal even in the holidays,” said Media Relations Officer Jodi-Ann Powery.

This as police record a spike in burglaries in the first two weeks of December according to their latest stats. There have been 24 burglaries, 8 in West Bay, 7 in Bodden Town, 5 in George Town, 3 in North Side and one in East End.

Mrs. Powery said the trend shows the recent spike comes from crimes of opportunity.

“In West Bay and what we’ve found is these are attributed to windows being left open and doors being left open and so on and these have been petty theft related burglaries, where persons have gone in and stole food items and small cash that’s been left inside the house,” said Mrs. Powery.

Over in Bodden Town, residential properties are being entered with force and valuable goods stolen in a police statement. Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown said, “What we believe we are seeing in the Eastern districts are multiple burglaries committed by a small group of individuals, these burglaries are not random, but target residences that appear vulnerable or may have valuable property.”

Mrs. Powery is urging citizens to exercise caution.

“What I like to tell people is lock up your house the way you would when you’re leaving for work and go outside and try to get in and that will show you where the weak points in your property is and that will assist you in fixing it,” said Mrs. Powery.

Now police said one woman from West Bay, three Bodden Town men and a woman from George Town have been arrested on charges stemming from burglary to possession of stolen goods with all these crimes on Grand Cayman. There have been none reported on the sister islands.