Police officer broke news of burglary to victims with compliments slip through letter box

A police officer broke news of a burglary to the victims on a ‘With Compliments’ note slipped through their door. The “illegible” message was posted by an officer from Parkside police station. His bosses at the Cambridgeshire force said posting the note was “not usual practice” – the officer has now been given “appropriate” paperwork after the gaffe.



The victim complained to police via Twitter over the weekend. Jonathan Whiteland tweeted: “Is it entirely appropriate to inform us of a burglary of our properly on a ‘With Compliments’ slip?” A conversation ensued between Mr Whiteland and Cambridgeshire police on the website. First he asked if they could help read the writing on the note – he was also sent the wrong email address to forward an image of the slip.

Mr Whiteland tweeted: “Hi @CambsCops, can you help us decipher this , or do we have to crowd-source what it says via Twitter?” Police replied: “We agree, it isn’t easy writing to read. Pls email incident no. to marketing.mailbox @ cambs.police.pnn.uk & we will look into it.” The victim was asked to email an image of the note by police – but was given the wrong address. He finally managed to send it after the address was corrected.



The note was out-of-date stationery and had the old police non-emergency number on it of 0345 456 4564 although the officer did write the new 101 number on the message. It read: “Hello, Your neighbour (redacted name) has reported to police his property has been broken into and yours has too. Please call the police on 101 to report this.” A police spokeswoman said: “We have been in touch with the person who posted this tweet. The officer who left the note has been contacted and provided with the appropriate paperwork to leave at future incidents. This is not usual practice as we have a purpose designed form to leave at incidents/crimes.”