A digger bucket was one of the finds police officers made as they raided a home in Wigan at dawn this morning (November 22).
Cops from GMP’s Operation Acquire team raided the home in Platt Bridge on Wednesday, and arrested a 34-year-old man. In searching the property, officers found seven bicycles along with an electric scooter, two quad bikes, a lawnmower, heavy duty plant machinery — and part of a digger.
The haul is set to be forensically examined. It’s through the items recovered were linked to a number of burglaries in Wigan and Leigh.
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“I want to use this opportunity to urge people to mark their valuables and belongings in some way with a name or postcode, so that if they are ever stolen, they can be reported to us with as much detail as possible,” said Detective Inspector Andrew Devine, from Wigan’s Neighbourhood Crime Team.
“You can also register valuables on Immobilise.com to make it easier for police to reunite you with any items in the event that they are stolen. Burglary – and the associated handling of stolen goods - is a priority for us along with vehicle crime and anti-social behaviour.
“Neighbourhood crime has a huge impact on our public, it is an attack on you, your family and your property - it won’t be tolerated in our communities. Another important part in our investigations is the information passed to us by members of the community, this can often play a crucial part in solving neighbourhood crime and we encourage anyone with any intelligence about crime in your community to come and speak to us.”
Operation Acquire — which runs across the GMP force area this month — focuses on ‘robustly tackling neighbourhood crime’, chiefs say. Each division has its own team of cops to seek out criminals.
Anyone with information about car thefts or anyone who believes suspicious activity is taking place at premises' can report it online at www.gmp.police.uk or alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Bee In The Loop is your direct line to your GMP neighbourhood policing team - www.beeintheloop.co.uk.