“It makes you feel helpless; violated in a way.”
Dom Taylor’s house was broken into last year; he is one of 2,032 who reported burglaries, robberies and muggings in Salford and Eccles in 2018 according to figures from the website UKCrimeStats.
Lower Broughton resident Mr Taylor said “They took a laptop of mine, a MacBook from others, three PS4s, portable speakers, headphones; pretty much anything portable and electrical they could find,
“It’s really hard, you feel helpless. Nothing really prepares you for that feeling knowing people can just walk into your home and take the things that you’ve rightly earned [sic].
“The support has been fairly minimal really. We just kind of had to move on.”
Across Greater Manchester, over 1,000 student houses like Mr Taylor’s are burgled each year. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show students almost twice as likely to be a victim of theft.
“We were literally sitting on the floor of our living room when we found out,” adds Taylor.
“There was not much really that we could do, there was evidence of a break in but there weren’t any fingerprints.
“It’s something that takes a while to get over otherwise you’ll just kind of sit there and wallow really.”
More than one in ten mugging victims have subsequent panic and anxiety attacks, while 92% of victims say they felt emotionally affected by the crime.
Josh Hinds from Pendelton says he feels ‘unsafe’ after he was mugged in Peel Park last September.
“I was walking back from a night out and there was three guys sitting on a park bench,” said Mr Hinds
“I walked past them, I didn’t really bat an eye-lid and then the three guys walked up behind me, threaten punch me and beat me up and took my wallet. It was really horrible.
“I just didn’t feel safe. It does worry me a lot walking home at night now.
“Most of the time I just use Uber or get a bus or make sure I’m with someone just because it’s never safe being alone at that time of night.”
Victim support is available on the Greater Manchester Police’s website.
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