We now have some information from Bournville Police about the incident on Bond Street referred to in the Forum meeting.
‘We do know about the terrible incident and can appreciate how the incident would have made the victim feel – along with the neighbours. To keep you informed, four males have attended a property on Bond Street and proceeded to force the door open by kicking it and taking running jumps at it. On the door flinging open, the males all run away without entering. The theory behind that is it became clear to the offenders that they had the wrong address. The offenders can be seen with items in their hands whilst kicking the door. It is possible that the offenders were looking for something like a cannabis set up.
We have done some work in the area and have not been able to locate a cannabis set up – but would ask the community to be vigilant and report any unusual comings and goings from properties – or the smell of cannabis from properties. We can then complete further work to ascertain the likelihood of a set up and deal with that.
The other possible option would be that they were present to steal high powered motor vehicles – however at the time (and since) there has not been any parked at that location – I would ask that members of the public ensure they use extra measures to secure their vehicles such as a steering wheel lock.
Since the incident, we have had neighbourhood officers in the area and conducting reassurance visits. We would all like nothing more than to get these offenders in and are working hard to achieve that.
As you know, policing numbers are not what we would all like and we are having to do more with less. Unfortunately we cannot be everywhere – but where there are vulnerable members of the community we will support as a constituency. I cannot say that this won’t happen to other people in the area – but I can say that we are working our hardest to try to limit it.’