Homeowners urged to join watch program

PATONG: Pol Col Paween Pongsirin, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, has urged Patong homeowners and tenants to notify the police when they go on vacation, leaving their homes unattended. Police officers will check on the houses while on patrol. A red box will be installed in front of each home, containing a logbook for patrolmen to sign when they check the house, which will be roughly every hour. “Patong has a history of theft, especially from houses and hotels. So this program shouldn’t be [considered] necessary only during a festival period, but anytime that people want police to keep an eye on their homes,” said Col Paween. “Joining the ‘Let The Police Watch Your Home’ scheme is free and very simple,” he said. All householders need do is phone their local police station and give their name, their address and the dates on which they will leave and return. “This program was very successful during Songkhran last year. For example, the owner of one house in Patong left the police to watch it for four days. In that period, our officers checked it 96 times. When the owner came back, everything in the house was fine,” Col Paween added. “We will not announce on police radios which houses are in the program; there will be only a few police with that knowledge. To prevent eavesdroppers from finding out which houses are unattended, the officers involved will speak in code when they communicate with each other by radio,” Col Paween told the Gazette. For more information, or to join the program, call the Kathu Police Station at 342719-20.