VISITORS to the Australia Day Coogee Beach Festival can protect their vehicles from thieves with the installation of free anti-theft screws.
The City of Cockburn and Cockburn Police are leading by example by installing the screws onto their own vehicles, with City of Cockburn Facilities and Plant manager Ben Roser adding their fleet vehicles, as well as the private cars of City employees, had not been immune from being targeted.
Cockburn Police detective sergeant Paul Thornton said the anti-theft screws were a small but important piece of equipment that all vehicle owners should have.
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READ NOW“Vehicle thefts happen everywhere,” he said.
“The initiative is focused on heightened community awareness about preventing theft from vehicles but also to develop the neighbourhood watch groups in the City of Cockburn.
“There are actually 23,665 reports of lost number plates and out of those numbers, I’d say about 20,000 of those are actually stolen.
“That just puts it into perspective about how prevalent it actually is in the community.
“Dovetailing from that is theft from vehicles because what we’re trying to get across to people is don’t leave valuable items in your car.”
Cockburn Neighbourhood Watch volunteers will be installing anti-theft screws donated by Bunnings at the Coogee Beach Festival.
Attendees who want their screws replaced are asked to leave a flyer in their windscreen saying so.
The flyer will be handed out to festival goers as the arrive.
For more information on joining Neighbourhood Watch in Cockburn, visit www.nhw.wa.gov.au.