Police thumbs-up for oil tank alarms

By John Swindells 08 Mar 2012 | Comment
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Have you been a victim of heating oil theft from your oil tank? The best thing is for you to get an alarm fitted - at least, that's according to a Norfolk Police and a Norfolk anti-crime charity.

This type of crime is such a problem that the Norfolk PACT (Partners Against Crime Taskforce, an independent community safety and crime prevention charity) are funding alarm installations for people who have fallen victim since January 2011, provided they are over 60 years of age. The device chosen is the Watchman oil tank alarm, and is part-funded with Ministry of Justice Victims of Crime money.

According to Detective Sergeant Pete Jessop:

We were asked to work closely with Norfolk PACT to tackle heating oil theft in the county. The alarms won’t stop a determined thief, but they will give the home-owner early warning if someone is trying to steal their heating oil.

The alarms will also allow us to build up an intelligence picture as to where and when exactly the thefts are occurring as sometimes they are not discovered for sometime after the theft.

It really is important that home-owners and other heating oil consumers check how much is in their tanks on a regular basis, so that they can tell whether their level has dropped rather suddenly. It is quite common to have false alarms because of high consumption over a long period.

Next steps

If you think that you qualify for a free tank alarm, contact Norfolk PACT on 01953 424727 or by emailing norfolkpact@norfolk.pnn.police.uk.

You may decide to buy a tank alarm yourself; here is a link to results on the Amazon UK store: Watchman tank alarm.

Find out more about the Norfolk PACT.

Read the Norfolk Police press release: Police team up with charity to combat heating oil theft

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