Police delay examining bloody scene
When the owners got home they saw the safe was covered in blood. It had apparently been opened with an angle grinder to get at the valuables inside.
Housebreaking victims in Strubens Valley, Alcina and Paul Birk, had to live with blood stains in their home for several days as they waited for the police to collect the fingerprints of the wrongdoers.
Alcina and Paul found their home in a shocking state after it had been broken into. When they got home, they saw the safe was smeared with blood. It appeared that the criminals who had broken into the house had opened the safe with an angle grinder in an effort to get at the valuables stored inside. They believe that one of the criminals injured himself in the process. Once they had the safe open, the criminals helped themselves to the jewellery, a laptop and other valuables it contained.
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“The house was broken into between 9am and 11.30am on Friday, 11 May, before we got home,” said Alcina, who immediately reported the matter to the police.
“Honeydew Police Station sent two police officers out to take details and open the case.
“We were told that we would get a phone call giving us the case number,” she recalled. “By Saturday afternoon (next day) we had heard nothing, so we went to the Honeydew Police Station, only to find that no file had been handed in. So, we started from scratch and opened a case giving all the details once again,” she explained.
Alcina told Northsider that even after the weekend, no police had attended to the matter. “On Monday, we waited for someone to come to take fingerprints, but we heard nothing,” she said. As the crime scene bothered the family, Alcina called the police again, on the Tuesday. “I was given the run around of contact names and phone numbers,” she said, “however, that afternoon one officer came to take the fingerprints and collected the evidence of the blood smears.”
Alcina added that since then they have not been updated about the case.
Honeydew Police spokesperson, Captain Balan Muthan, said he would follow up on the matter, and keep all involved parties advised as to the police’s progress.
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