"Don't. Leave. Your. Window. Open. If. You're. Leaving. The. House."
With Whanganui burglars ever-active, Senior Sergeant Andrew McDonald is urging people to make sure their house is secured when they go out.
This included closing all windows, even those that were high up, he said.
"Yes, the house will be hot when you come home, but it only takes five minutes to open up all the doors," he said. "You won't have the emotional heartache of having to deal with a burglary.
"It's convenient to leave the house open and think, 'Oh, it won't happen to me', but reducing the opportunity for these cretins to break into your house ... for me that's common sense."