It's a steal -- burglars bagged €72m last year
Thursday November 05 2009
The average burglar makes off with more than €3,000 worth of goods -- and jewellery is the most popular item for thieves to target.
Some €72m worth of items has been stolen from houses over the past year, according to a new report, with jewellery making up a third of all property taken.
Next on the list for house-breakers were electrical appliances, which accounted for 22pc of all goods stolen, and cash, which made up 23pc.
The Eircom PhoneWatch Burglary report also says that the most common time for burglaries is on a Sunday, between noon and 4pm, and that November is the worst month.
Dublin is Ireland's burglary hot-spot, with a third of all robberies. And a half of all burglaries take place in the greater Dublin area and the commuter belt.
The report also states that 80pc of raids take place while the occupants are at home.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they had become more security conscious since the recession, with 77pc of people feeling they are at more risk now.
The least number of burglaries occurred during the summer months of July and August.
The figures suggest that burglars prefer the winter because they can appear and disappear under the cover of darkness.
The report also highlighted the need for more homes to become security conscious, as almost 40pc of victims of burglaries had no alarm system.
According to the study, the number of break-ins is down 12.6pc since 2005.
But these figures were contradicted by the latest crime statistics released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), whose data suggests that the number of burglaries had spiked in the past few months.
The CSO data show that burglaries in the third quarter of 2009 had risen significantly -- by just over a quarter when compared with 2008.
