A SPECIAL investigation by Messenger has discovered ten insecure houses in one area of Trafford in just under 90 minutes.

Crime reporter Simon Greenhalgh went on patrol with two plainclothes police officers from the Sale area team in Brooklands, last Friday.

During the initiative the team identified houses where garages, porch doors and windows had been left open making them easy targets for burglars.

Residents who had left their house insecure were left foot print' shaped calling cards - advising people they had been visited and should take action to secure their property.

In the final case they found a house where a professional couple had gone to work leaving a computer monitor and laptop on display in the front window.

And when the two officers walked down the house driveway and through an unsecured gate they discovered the back door had been left unlocked.

The couple were contacted and the officers remained at the scene until a family member arrived to secure the house.

Sale Area Insp Brendan O'Brien said: "They had a laptop on display, all sorts of toys upstairs and probably several thousands pounds of property.

"Due to the house being left insecure the insurance claim would have been null and void and the thing is all this amazing amount of potential heartache could easily be avoided."

He added: "This initiative shows that despite our best efforts we're still not getting the message through to people that if you leave your house insecure you will get burgled.

"I knew we would find a house this morning that was insecure and in-fact it only took us about a minute to find the first one."

Sale area field intelligence officer Pc Simon Armstrong added: "Everyone's got a life to live and in this last case its seems the family have got kids so I'm sure they're very busy all the time.

"These people have obviously gone out in a rush, left the back door unlocked and unfortunately the first they may have heard about is at 5pm when they'd got home from work and found the house empty."

The operation took place, between 10am and 11.30am, but of the ten insecure houses they visited only one member of the public challenged the team to identify themselves.

Pc Simon Armstrong added: "We directed our communicators to tell us of any calls that we get, conscious that as well as trying to deter crime we're trying to reassure the public that we're out and about. But we've had no calls.

"We wouldn't encourage anyone to confront somebody on a drive - that's what we do. But if people see anybody they're not sure about they should always ring the police; we'd rather have a false call than no call at all."

Trafford residents are being urged to go ALL' out to beat thieves this autumn by remembering Alarms, Locks and Lights.

This simple three-point message is a reminder to put the Alarm on, Lock all doors and windows and leave a Light on when leaving your home empty.