The villages of Lyndhurst and Minstead have had 84 unsolved burglaries in 3 years (Picture: Shutterstock/Damien McFadden)
Locals living in a small village in the New Forest are using Facebook and WhatsApp groups to try to solve local crimes.
Families living in the beautiful Hampshire town of Lyndhurst are fed up with the number of burglaries going unsolved, so have decided to take matters into their own hands.
Lyndhurst, along with the village of Minstead just two miles north, has the most unsolved burglaries anywhere in the UK.
As of June, there have been 84 burglaries recorded in three years and all of them remain unresolved.
The postcard-perfect town is often heaving with tourists due to its pretty high street and ideal location close to the stunning New Forest National Park and not too far from the coast either.
Lyndhurst residents said it felt like Hampshire Constabulary had given up on trying to solve the crimes – so they decided they would have to deal with them instead.
Janine Stone had £750 worth of products stolen from her shop recently (Picture: Damien McFadden)
They set up dedicated Facebook and WhatsApp groups to try to catch the criminals themselves, reports the Mail Online.
Janine Stone, who owns Lyndhurst Antiques Centre, joined the group after two of her Moorcraft charger plates – worth £750 in total – went missing.
The 52-year-old told the Mail Online that she reported this to the police straight away but received an automated email response saying they couldn’t do anything about it.
So instead Janine decided to share the details of what happened on Facebook, and it was re-posted 344 times – which is a lot for a small place like Lyndhurst.
This is what led to the shoplifter returning the items a few days later.
According to Ms Stone, the shoplifter’s friend saw the Facebook post and told her ‘she should do the right thing’.
‘It was the pressure that got to her,’ Ms Stone added.
Ms Stone continued: ‘We’ve only had four thefts since we’ve run the shop. But we still need the police.
‘It would be nice to have a visit from an officer, rather than an automated email response.’
Aaron Page, who runs Pages of Lyndhurst, is also a member of the WhatsApp group.
Lyndhurst Antiques Centre in the popular New Forest village(Picture: Shutterstock / Stefan-Kadar)
The 41-year-old said he’s ‘not anti-police’ but added that it ‘feels like they’ve just left us’.
He’s one of 20 people in the WhatsApp group, where members share all sorts of information, from customers acting suspiciously to people using fake notes to pay.
His shop sells a range of local produce such as honey and wine, and he has a clip of a man recently trying to steal a £29 bottle of whisky from the shop.
Mr Page said: ‘I put my hands on his rucksack to stop him. He just handed back the bottle.
‘Then he went into the Co-op, where he bought a bottle. Then he went into a public toilet to drink it all. So brazen.’
He added: ‘I had an elderly lady in here once, who stole a Ford Mustang car model. She walked out with it and I went after her.
‘I put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Excuse me madam, I know you’ve got the car!” I was polite to her; she just gave it back to me.’
Policing minister Chris Philp said last Sunday that all reports of shoplifting should be looked into, although usually police only investigate thefts of goods worth over £200.
Sophie Draper, who runs Sofika’s clothes shop in Lyndhurst, is also a member of the WhatsApp group
(Picture: Damien McFadden)
But business owners are keen for the return of police on the streets.
Aaron said their return would be the ‘biggest deterrent’.
Hilary Brand, the Lib Dem councillor for Lyndhurst and Minstead and the owner of Lyndhurst Tea House says shoplifting isn’t the worst of the area’s problems.
She described how criminal gangs will tend to target sheds and outbuildings positioned away from houses in more rural places, which is what happened to Brett Wateridge two weeks ago.
Mr Wateridge, 47, lives with his wife in Emery Down, a picturesque village about a mile from Lyndhurst, and works as a fencing contractor.
He keeps his tools in a shed behind their bungalow and recently he had £400 worth of kit, plus his son’s bike stolen from the shed.
The fencer said police would have paid you a visit in the past and shown ‘some interest’ but that it ‘seems less so now’.
He added that they give you a crime reference number, allowing you to claim on insurance, but explained that he hasn’t even bothered reporting the recent theft.
Brett Wateridge had £400 worth of tools and his son’s bike stolen recently (Picture: Damien McFadden)
‘You wonder how many other crimes are not reported,’ Mr Wateridge said.
The 47-year-old added that some of his friends have installed CCTV cameras but that ‘apparently that’s not even enough evidence to prosecute anyone’.
Mr Wateridge said he’s had more alarming experiences in the past, in particular when his daughter, 18 at the time, heard burglars trying to smash the shed door down in the middle of the night.
He described how someone was waiting in a van, shouting to the other person to hurry up.
They managed to get the registration number of the van, which had been stolen from Salisbury, but the criminals were never caught.
Mr Wateridge said they have installed an alarm now, but added that his daughter struggles to sleep because she’s worried someone will break into the house.
He has taken to sharing these crimes on WhatsApp groups just in case it leads to those responsible being caught.
Adrian Stride, a property landlord and neighbour to Mr Wateridge moved to the area three years ago with his wife and children.
Giovanni Parma runs Paws in the Forest, a toy shop in Lyndhurst (Picture: Damien McFadden)
Around two months ago burglars broke into their garage at 3am and stole two bikes worth £12,000.
Mr Strike, 57, said it ‘felt vindictive’ as the burglars dragged and scratched all along the car, damaging the paintwork.
Former Met superintendent said residents forming these types of groups shows people have ‘lost faith’ in the police and that we are losing ‘a cornerstone of our democracy’.
He added that ‘dwindling police numbers need looking at’.
According to Home Office figures, only 5.7 per cent of crimes were solved nationally last year, and just 4.4 per cent of all thefts resulted in someone being charged.
Last year, a total of 2.3 million cases were dropped without a suspect being found.
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The New Forest villages of Lyndhurst and Minstead have the most unsolved burglaries of anywhere in the UK.