Above: Police are looking for information on men captured on security videos during a break-in at a Southborough home yesterday afternoon. (images cropped from contributed photo)
Police are asking the public for help in finding three men who broke into a house on Mt. Vickery Road in the middle of the day.
This also serves as a warning to secure homes. According to the announcement shared by Chief Ryan Newell, they may have been posing as solicitors or landscapers prior to entering an unlocked window.
The announcement states:
On Wednesday 6/19/2024 at approximately 1312 hours, three male parties entered an occupied home on Mt. Vickery Road through an unlocked, first floor window. Interior security footage shows three possible Caucasian or Hispanic males- all were wearing face coverings and gloves. Two of the males were wearing reflective vests. The suspects were possibly dressed as solicitors or landscapers in order to not attract attention. At this point, the residents have reported that there does not appear to be anything missing from the home. Please contact our Detective Unit at Tlu@southboroughma.com or jnorton@southboroughma.com, if you have any information that could assist with this investigation. Thank you.
Below are the photos the SPD shared (click to enlarge):
I reached out to Chief Newell asking some questions about practical security measures based on what local police have learned from past break-ins. He said that I could share the following advice with readers*:
It starts by incorporating effective home security measures outside of the home.
Checking the locks on your windows, doors, and car doors should be a daily occurrence, if you want to do everything you can to secure your valuables. Sometimes windows and doors are opened during the day and not locked at night. I would encourage our residents to walk around the outside of their homes and ask themselves, “If I was a burglar, where are the easiest access points to break into this house? How would I do it?”
Once you identify an area or notice a way that someone could gain access to your home, you need to find a way to secure it (add locks, move ladders away from exterior of house, make sure windows or doors have additional security in that area, etc.). Then think about adding in the visual deterrents, like motion-activated lights and/or cameras.
Cameras are great, but unless there are alerts sent to the homeowner (so that they can check and immediately contact the police), they are only good for the follow-up investigation- after the home has been burglarized. Most cameras have a motion sensing area on the camera view, so that you can weed out the regular foot or animal traffic in the area, so that you are not getting constant alerts.
Also, I would suggest removing rocks that are outside the rear of the home that are big enough to be used to shatter door windows. Unless the rear door is alarmed, a burglar can smash a back door glass panel and enter a home with less risk of neighbors or those passing by seeing or hearing them enter the home. I would also encourage residents who go on vacation to utilize our Vacation Check Request forms (to be filled out and submitted to our department): [click here]
We add these vacation checks into our regular patrol schedule during the time frames listed on the form. Neighborhood watches are also important, where neighbors keep an eye on the homes in their neighborhood and report any unusual or suspicious activity.
*Updated (6/20/24 2:36 pm): I added Chief Newell’s security advice above. (Note: I did reformat into multiple paragraphs for easier reading.)
