At a Police Liaison Group Meeting for the Hampton Wick and South Teddington ward last night (Thursday 20 February), Teddington neighbourhood police reassured attendees that it is continuing to investigate the series of "linked" burglaries in the area.

Over the past two weeks, three burglaries took place at homes in the area which were caught on doorbell footage shared with Teddington Nub News by the homeowners.

Two of the burglaries were unsuccessful.

These took place on King Edward's Grove at around 1.30am on Wednesday, 12 February, and on Cromwell Road about half an hour later on the same day.

Both incidents involved three masked men attempting to break into the homes' front doors.

The third incident, which took place at a different home on King Edward's Grove on the night of Sunday, 16 February, was successful.

According to Sergeant Phillip Ross Martyn of Teddington Police, the burglars managed to break in through the property's back gate, which was left unlocked.

The residents of the property told Teddington Nub News that the burglars went through the downstairs and cellar of their property and that a number of items were taken.

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It is thought that the burglars were the same as those who were involved in the first two incidents.

At the meeting last night, Sergeant Martyn informed the group that the local police is on track to finding the culprits.

He believes that all three incidents are "linked".

The Sergeant said that the local burglary squad is doing a number of things to track down the culprits, including carrying out uniform patrols and a surveillance investigation, using social media footprint tools, carrying out bike checks and door lock checks, and using facial recognition.

He said: "Although the burglars had balaclavas on which revealed only their eyes, we think that our facial recognition software will still be able to recognise them, and we are close to catching them."

Sergeant Martyn also informed the group that his colleague will have visited all of the victims and their neighbours to advise them on how to prevent this from happening again.

When asked about recommendations for good door locks, Police Constable Lex Powell advised the group to look at Secured By Design's (SBD) website.

SBD is the official police security initiative that works to improve the security of buildings and their immediate surroundings to provide safe places to live, work, shop and visit.

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Despite this recent string of "linked" burglaries, the number of burglaries in the Hampton Wick and South Teddington ward in the period of October 2024 – January 2025 have declined since the same period last year, going from a recorded total of 20 to 15.