Crime in Reading

[Mayfield]

Poppycock Chipbutty …that isn’t what it says - as well you know but I doubt Reading is much worse than other similar towns and that’s the point.

[ChipbuttyG]

Poppycock Chipbutty …that isn’t what it says - as well you know but I doubt Reading is much worse than other similar towns and that’s the point.

I know. Reading is wonderful!

[Mayfield]

If you came from a rural area with few jobs, shops or other amenities you probably would think Reading is wonderful .
Is it any more or less wonderful than any similar place ? Probably not - like anywhere else it has its pluses and minuses …

I believe in making the most of what there is - not worrying about it’s shortcomings.

We are surrounded by lovely countryside, we have easy access to London and the bright lights and direct links to several airports if you want to fly away . If want to explore the UK we are near to the M4 with the M3 and M40 within easy reach .
I had the opportunity to move backto Cookham , Stanley Spencer’s ‘Heaven on Earth’ I didn’t - nowhere is perfect for everyone.

Are you moving away from friends and family, is that not a consideration ?

[ChipbuttyG]

If you came from a rural area with few jobs, shops or other amenities you probably would think Reading is wonderful .
Is it any more or less wonderful than any similar place ? Probably not - like anywhere else it has its pluses and minuses …

I believe in making the most of what there is - not worrying about it’s shortcomings.

We are surrounded by lovely countryside, we have easy access to London and the bright lights and direct links to several airports if you want to fly away . If want to explore the UK we are near to the M4 with the M3 and M40 within easy reach .
I had the opportunity to move backto Cookham , Stanley Spencer’s ‘Heaven on Earth’ I didn’t - nowhere is perfect for everyone.

Are you moving away from friends and family, is that not a consideration ?

I agree with you Mayfield. Reading is wonderful. I can't fault it. If it wasn't for wanting to move nearer to family, we'd stay in a heartbeat.

[Ollycat]

A quick check for September 2021 on the link Ollycat provided there was 159 crimes recorded in that area.

Compared to our area that had 22 recorded crimes during September.

Where I am, had 15 in September, but the oddity is most are classed as 'Violence and sexual offences' which I have been told by police mainly covers 'domestic violence etc' so not in the street / public fronting so not really known about
Biggest problem we actually have is ASB mainly due to being a lot of students about, second level is burglary - and a lot is due to students' not being security conscious!

Neighbourhood Watch have started focusing on ASB,

https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/asb

As for students, half the issue is that the landlords they rent from don't seem to think such things as curtains or blinds are a necessity, so all their worldly goods are on display to anyone walking past.

[OLDMAN]

<snip>

A reported acid attack on Edinburgh Road yesterday.

A [TVP] spokesman said: "...It was established that the injury was an accident which involved the injured man and no one else and therefore no crime had been committed."

Well, we've all done it...

Well yes my father did!

I had acquired an almost brand new battery for my XJ6 and one Saturday it was on charge in the next door Doctors garage (he allowed us to use it)
My brother and father where round there and I was in our back garden when I heard a muffled ‘boom’, next thing they both came running through the garden and into the house, my brother holding a bright red cloth over my father’s face, which I thought was blood.........wrong

Turned out he was showing my brother how powerful the battery was, by flashing a spanner across the terminals - the caps where all loose so it could breath and suffice to say the sparks caught the gas and blew the thing up so he got covered with acid over his head, my brother had it up his arm -the red cloth was just that!
They both got washed down / cleaned up, and fortunately nothing in his eyes and all looked reasonable okay, but both went to RBH for a check-up - all good with just a salve to treat the burns, and no lasting damage

Apart from the battery that is, as it was in bits and acid was everywhere so I had to clean it all up whilst they got checked out

[windrush]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When I worked at a 'garage in Berkshire' one of the fitters decided to gas weld a battery box on a truck without removing the two batteries...same result when he flashed the welding torch across the batteries! Off topic as it wasn't a criminal act.

Pete.

[Pooneil]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When I worked at a 'garage in Berkshire' one of the fitters decided to gas weld a battery box on a truck without removing the two batteries...same result when he flashed the welding torch across the batteries! Off topic as it wasn't a criminal act.

Pete.

Criminally stupid, perhaps!

[OLDMAN]

A quick check for September 2021 on the link Ollycat provided there was 159 crimes recorded in that area.

Compared to our area that had 22 recorded crimes during September.

Where I am, had 15 in September, but the oddity is most are classed as 'Violence and sexual offences' which I have been told by police mainly covers 'domestic violence etc' so not in the street / public fronting so not really known about
Biggest problem we actually have is ASB mainly due to being a lot of students about, second level is burglary - and a lot is due to students' not being security conscious!

Neighbourhood Watch have started focusing on ASB,

https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/asb

As for students, half the issue is that the landlords they rent from don't seem to think such things as curtains or blinds are a necessity, so all their worldly goods are on display to anyone walking past.

One big problem is lack of police and that’s down to central government / funding, not a lot local councils can do about it – even the police themselves moan about it

As for students I agree many landlords are to blame but ‘some’ students aren’t much better - I know of 3 cases where the front doors had been left unlocked and burgers just walked in / cleared the place, in one the police got called (by a neighbour) as it happened and they turned up / arrested the 2 guys taking stuff out, they walked into the house and there was a girl in her room sitting at a computer working away – she hadn’t noticed they were being burgled – she though it was workers the landlord had sent to sort some stuff out!
Got told that by the local police sergeant who had attended it!

[chris_j_wood]

One big problem is lack of police and that’s down to central government / funding, not a lot local councils can do about it – even the police themselves moan about it

Agreed that it has nothing to do with local councils. Their last influence disappeared when elected police commissioners replaced police authorities with members appointed by local authorities.

But the police commissioner does get to set a precept on council tax, so funding isn't entirely down to central government. Of course our police commissioner is on record as believing the biggest crime issue in the Thames Valley is rural crime in Oxfordshire, so I wouldn't hold out much hope from that quarter.

[Note to self, don't mention that he is a Tory, or you might get accused of writing a 'blame it on the Tories' shout by Mr Blame-it-on-Labour.]

[ChipbuttyG]

One big problem is lack of police and that’s down to central government / funding, not a lot local councils can do about it – even the police themselves moan about it

Agreed that it has nothing to do with local councils. Their last influence disappeared when elected police commissioners replaced police authorities with members appointed by local authorities.

But the police commissioner does get to set a precept on council tax, so funding isn't entirely down to central government. Of course our police commissioner is on record as believing the biggest crime issue in the Thames Valley is rural crime in Oxfordshire, so I wouldn't hold out much hope from that quarter.

[Note to self, don't mention that he is a Tory, or you might get accused of writing a 'blame it on the Tories' shout by Mr Blame-it-on-Labour.]

Chris, you were blaming the Tories for lack of cycle lanes (Vastern Road) in 2021 in Reading. Labour, for the most part have run Reading since 1997 or if you like 1987.

[ChipbuttyG]

Sad to hear of another stabbing in Reading yesterday. This time an 18 year old female on Wensley Road, Coley.

[ChipbuttyG]

Sad to hear of another murder in Reading, on Elgar Road this time. A 70 year old man.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... res-scene/

[ChipbuttyG]

ANOTHER knife incident in Dulnan Close.

That area is very problematic.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... der-place/

[ChipbuttyG]

Go careful when getting cash out.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... t-reading/

[ChipbuttyG]

Four Reading men arrested after Friar Street fight outside Wild Lime.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... wild-lime/

[ChipbuttyG]

Distraction theft at Waitrose on the Oxford Road.

Poor woman.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... 9eavwKN5Pc

[chris_j_wood]

Reading Police have issued a warning about a criminal who has been seen impersonating a police officer. Fortunately his scruffy dress normally gives him away as an imposter, but they are worried that he might be able to gain the trust, and take advantage, of more vulnerable members of society.

[piwacket]

Distraction theft at Waitrose on the Oxford Road.

Poor woman.

‘Her card was missing’ - where was her card? Or did she just leave her handbag abandoned?

[OLDMAN]

Distraction theft at Waitrose on the Oxford Road.

Poor woman.

‘Her card was missing’ - where was her card? Or did she just leave her handbag abandoned?

What got me is that she realised it was missing by the evening and then reported it to the bank, by which time two transaction’s had been made totalling £5000 - how?

[Voiceoftreason?]

Distraction theft at Waitrose on the Oxford Road.

Poor woman.

‘Her card was missing’ - where was her card? Or did she just leave her handbag abandoned?

What got me is that she realised it was missing by the evening and then reported it to the bank, by which time two transaction’s had been made totalling £5000 - how?

Possibly by shoulder surfing her PIN number at the till and then stealing her purse/card from her bag if it was in the car or trolley when she put the shopping away or returned the trolley. A quick Gloggle search reveals its pretty common.......

[ChipbuttyG]

Reading town centre among most crime-ridden in England and Wales

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/

[C.A.Versham]

Yes surely they would also need the pin in a shop to make two such large transactions on the same day.

The pictures of the suspects show them coming out of a store such as John Lewis. Hard to identify.

[Voiceoftreason?]

Yes surely they would also need the pin in a shop to make two such large transactions on the same day.

The pictures of the suspects show them coming out of a store such as John Lewis. Hard to identify.

You’re right, Cav, they would. I recognised what I think is the back entrance of JL. Certainly not Oxford Road Waitrose. It’s quite disturbing how often that supermarket is targeted in the South in general - it’s not just locally. I saw a sketch by some comedian or other, possibly Michael Mackintyre, during which he said something about Waitrose people are posh as they take their trolleys back and stack them nearly. I’d presume villains think all WR shoppers are loaded and more likely to have wads of cash on them or be older and less attentive/more trusting therefore an easy target.

[ChipbuttyG]

We had our bags for life stolen off our trolley in Tesco Reading West. I assume the scumbag who stole them thought there might be a purse or wallet in there.

[spectrum64]

We had our bags for life stolen off our trolley in Tesco Reading West. I assume the scumbag who stole them thought there might be a purse or wallet in there.

Perhaps you could ask Tesco to replace them as they haven't lasted a life time?

[piwacket]

Just in passing-
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/

[Pooneil]

Just in passing-
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/

Proving that once again you can prove anything with statistics. The ranking is obtained "by comparing crime report figures in "LSOA areas" - or neighbourhoods - between March and August this year with Census population data." So since only about 1,500 people are actually registered as living in the area, but lots of crime happens there (mainly committed by people who don't live there), then "lots of crime divided by not many residents" equals big number. I suspect that if you divided the amount of crime by the area of the neighbourhood, that might give a significantly different result. And if you could find a figure that measured not the actual number of people registered as living in the area but actually physically being in the area in any 24 hour period, the number would be far lower.

[ChipbuttyG]

Just in passing-
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/

I posted that at 9:12 this morning....

[piwacket]

Just in passing-
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/

I posted that at 9:12 this morning....

Oooh so you did - ooops!

[quote=piwacket post_id=331608 time=<a href="tel:1639149953">1639149953</a> user_id=792]
Just in passing-
https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... and-wales/
Proving that once again you can prove anything with statistics.

I remember back in the 70s, when the IRA were very active - our offices were next door to a pub which was apparently frequented by many ‘suspected’ members of the organisation, we were frequently visited by two or three Police officers who wanted to use our windows which looked across the pub yard - for observation. There were other places also under observation- and one police officer telling us that Reading had the 6th highest crime rate in Britain! So things have improved somewhat - whatever figure your adjustment would come up with now.
I wonder where No.1 on the list is? London?

[ChipbuttyG]

Probably Dulnan Close....

[ChipbuttyG]

Talking to a funny chap in The Hatchet, Newbury yesterday from East Illsley. Drinking Guinness with his Guinness jumper on.

He said Reading was rough, especially that Oxford Road area.

[ChipbuttyG]

Actually one of the very few pubs in Reading I've never set foot in.

"TWO men have been arrested after a man was beaten up with a baseball bat during a fight at a popular local pub."

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news ... d-assault/

[OLDMAN]

If you look at this the crime rate for TVP is well under the England / Wales average:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/866 ... by-region/
Hight crime rate for UK places top 10 (from 2020) are –
1. London
2. Manchester
3. Newcastle Upon Tyne
4. Cambridge
5. Bristol
6. Bradford
7. Birmingham
8. Belfast
9. Armagh
10. Aberdeen

[ChipbuttyG]

Yes - On the whole TV is a nice place, let down by the likes of Reading and Slough etc.