I ask everyone to report suspicious or unusual behaviour in our community to the police. Simply seeing someone walking about late at night or acting suspiciously can be the final piece police require to arrest and charge an offender. Do you have information about the thefts? Have you seen someone acting suspiciously or walking around somewhere they shouldn’t be? If you have, I urge you to report the information either directly to the Dumbleyung Police Station or to Crimestoppers.
The Dumbleyung Police Station can be contacted on 9863 4143 or if you would prefer to email from home, we can be reached on the email address of Dumbleyung.Police.Station@police.wa.gov.au. Similarly, I can be emailed directly at alby.vandenberg@police.wa.gov.au.
I treat reports made to me as confidential and can ensure anonymity if we act on the information. If you would prefer to remain totally anonymous, Crimestoppers can be contacted on 1800 333 000.
We have commenced firearm cabinet inspections and I am happy to say the majority checked have complied with legislation. Where issues have been identified, the main problems revolve around the anchoring of the cabinet to walls and floors. Serious inadequacies in these requirements could result in the seizure of all firearms until the cabinet meets the standards required. As a reminder, here is what is needed to comply with legislation when anchoring a gun cabinet;
· The cabinet or container is to be securely anchored from the inside at 2 points on each of 2 separate surfaces to 2 immovable structural surfaces (floor/wall or wall/wall in a corner) by means of 8 mm x 75 mm masonry fixing bolts or coach screws, as is appropriate.
· At each anchor point the cabinet or container is to be reinforced with a 40 mm x 40 mm x 2 mm metal plate, or a 40 mm x 2 mm metal washer, fitted between the surface of the cabinet or container and the head of the bolt or coach screw.
If your cabinet does not comply, please do what you can to fix this as soon as you can. Exceptions can be approved by Firearm Licensing for alternative measures such as where a cabinet is welded to a surface or incorporated in concrete as a floor safe. For information on this, please contact us at the station.
Finally, with the festive season fast approaching and harvest in full swing, I urge everyone to be safe and patient on the roads and in the paddocks. Let’s make sure we all go into 2019 happy, healthy and hopefully, with full grain bins and silos.
Article supplied by Sergeant Alby Van Den Berg