RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29827, 21 May 1962, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

DIAL 999

Owners of television sets will have been distressed to learn that with the advent of television in the home, burglaries are tending to increase. In a recent address on crime prevention given to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, DetectiveInspector G. C. Urquhart said that a dim blue light in a front room gave notice that a television set was working, and burglars were sneaking in back doors or through windows and stealing things while the occupants of the house were watching their television. No doubt there have even been instances of them steal-

ing through back doors and sneaking things. It is a pretty poor business if a householder cannot spend an hour in Laramie without having his concentration disturbed by thoughts that his butterfly collection might have flown out the window. And one wouldn’t love Lucy if she was going to cost the second-best mink. The only thing is to meet guile with guile. The householder prepared to leave every lights in every room burning brightly could win some measure of protection, but that might have its effect on the M.E.D. account. Alternatively, dim blue

light in every room might do the trick and be less expensive, although there might be a reluctance to convert the home into something looking like a nest of coffee lounges. The average man will probably come to the conclusion that he has the sound on his television set too high and that with a more moderate output he would probably be able to hear if there was someone rumaging about in the pot cupboard. To be really sure, he could turn the sound right down, and just watch the pictures. Or ha could turn the whole darned thing off.