A recent call to police by a member of the public about three young people loitering suspiciously in Onekawa led to the trio being recognised as past burglary offenders and spoken to.
The three were aged between 12 and 14 and were taken to their homes by Constable Mike Burne, who is community officer for the Onekawa and Pandora industrial areas as well as Tamatea.
The three boys were all from Tamatea and were seen by a woman in Austin St during the last week of the school holidays.
She became suspicious of the way the youngsters were behaving and called police.
"I'm pleased she did," Mr Burne said. He recognised the trio and said while they had not committed an offence on that occasion the potential was there. "All three have burgled in the past 12 months."
Mr Burne said none had been dealt with for offending alone and had all been involved in burglary incidents together on different occasions. "It's your classic example of a bad mix."
All three were taken home and their parents spoken to.
Mr Burne said the parents of all three were annoyed and accepted their children had behavioural problems.
"They are doing what they can short of locking them up in their rooms," he said. "They go out after telling their parents they are going to see someone - who they are not. They are not where they say they will be."
Instead the boys were meeting up and wandering. "They lack supervision."
In the wake of previous incidents the three had been referred to the Youth Aid section.
It was the second recent incident where youngsters had been caught up in criminal activities.
Last Saturday night six young people, aged between 10 and 15, were caught by police breaking into the Frimley Four Square store in Hastings.
The group were picked up by police after a member of the public called to say the youngsters were acting suspiciously.
Mr Burne said such calls were invaluable. "If anything looks suspicious, or it looks like people should not be where they are seen to be, then we need to be called straight away."
He said many thieves were opportunistic and if they spotted a chance to get on to or into a property would take it.
He encountered two incidents last month where staff at workplaces in Onekawa called and reported items going missing.