Another theft from a shop in Rye High Street occurred on the Saturday afternoon of bonfire night, November 10. Items of jewelry, gold bracelets and bangles on display in the shop window of My Sweet Old Etcetera were seized in an opportunist grab whilst the shopkeeper’s attention was distracted. Also stolen were some banknotes from the till.
The thief had obviously panicked in running off, because one £10 note fell to the ground on the threshold and was returned by an unknown passer by, who did not however witness the theft.
The shop owner, Mrs Jenny Clarke who celebrates 50 years in business this year, reported the incident in person at Rye police station on Monday November 12, having failed to overcome the obstacles to making a non-emergency call by telephone. She was very courteously received, details were taken and she was asked whether any CCTV camera might have been in operation. She was surprised that the police seemed totally unaware that they own the CCTV camera located on the shop at the top of Conduit Hill.
We understand that there has been no police contact or follow up of this incident, nor of the theft from Boots the Chemists in the High Street at about the same time exactly four weeks earlier on Saturday October 13 as reported in Rye News.
In that case, the police had indicated an intention to inspect the CCTV footage, with its recorded images, but so far have failed to do so.
Image Credits: Kenneth Bird .
So the CCTV scheme seems to have been forgotten by Sussex Police? Likewise the Shopwatch radio system which I helped to revamp about three years ago. When I was last in the police station as a member of the public the two radio sets situated in the enquiry office had been unplugged and chucked under the counter. Sussex Police should be reminded that one of their prime objectives is “The Prevention and Detection of Crime”.