Ask most police officers what gets their adrenaline pumping and many will tell you that hearing the ‘I’ grade call about a ‘confirmed sequential’ intruder alarm will often come close to raising the heartbeat of most 999 response team officers.
For our civilian readers, then a ‘confirmed sequential’ alarm means that an alarm has been activated by movement at least twice within a premises (commercial or residential).
The fact that there has been two separate activations at two different locations within a building is important because many false alarms are triggered by a single activation and that means that most police forces probably won’t have the resources available to send to the location because of the high likelihood of it being a false alarm.
But when you hear that an alarm has been activated by at least two sensors within a building, then in the dead of night you know that it will either be a person, a large animal or perhaps something a bit more ‘spooky’ and/or unexplained.
You can therefore imagine how response team officers in Northumbria felt a few nights ago, when just such a call came through the airwaves.
A post on the Northumbria Police Facebook page revealed:
“Officers in Newcastle found themselves on the “tail” of a sneak-in burglary at the weekend – after a CAT broke in to a local bookies.
“Response cops in the city centre were dispatched to the BetFred bookmakers on Shields Road in Byker in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“The alarm company at the store had alerted police after receiving an automated message to say their alarm had been activated three times in just 20 minutes.
“Officers were prepared to come face-to-face with a “fur-midable” foe when they arrived at the bookmakers.
“But they were grateful to find no burglars at the scene – except a black cat just sitting on the front counter.
“The cat eventually left the store and officers were able to get back on duty to keep the public safe and put some real burglars behind bars.
“Acting Inspector Peter Bond said: “We were pretty shocked to find a cat burglar in the act but thankfully this time nothing was being stolen.
“Our Dog Section turned up as well so you can imagine the scene when our PD caught a scent of the intruder.
“We’re still not sure how it managed to get in but after a bit of chasing it did eventually leave the store.
“You never know what you might find when you respond to an alarm activation but this made our officers smile when they arrived.
“After a stern talking to the cat went on its way empty handed and hopefully it will think twice about breaking in to anywhere else again!”.
At least this call would have resulted in minimal paperwork being generated – a rarity in many forces up-and-down the country.
In fact, it would not surprise me if it was my cat, as he often comes home in the evening with wads of cash and half-chewed betting slips.
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Featured picture credit: @NorthumbriaPolice / Facebook
