Not sure if you have Facebook Wendy but there is a group for Fethiye neighbourhood watch which Pauline Elliott has started and several of us coordinators are helping her.
We're having regular monthly meetings and the Police and local consulate and Istanbul consulate have attended.
The Polis are being extremely helpful and are giving us their full backing and support, the Jandarma unfortunately don't want to be involved and were having problems establishing why this is and Pauline has written to various officials to try and resolve this.
It really is a huge problem at the moment and many different avenues are being looked into to try and establish how and why, any patterns, who else may have had access to these properties, know where people are etc.
Members of the group have set up a surveillance system of alerting others to strange characters lurking around, cars going slowly, methods being used to alert others etc.
Neighbourhood watch signs to put on your gate can be ordered through your local coordinators at just 5tl each.
So, there really is a lot going on behind the scenes.
As a group it's been decided that because of the huge volume of break ins, in holiday rental properties, sometimes. 3 or 4 a night, the onus for security is on the owners to ensure their tenants are safe, and we don't have sufficient resources to deal with the rental properties, for a number of reasons, for example... The property gets broken into, they go back to the UK and we are unable to get them to complete incident forms.
The incident forms are the key to us seeing if there's patterns, reporting quotas to the Polis and we can only do this if they're completed.
Another thing that happens.... People renting sometimes don't even know their address. In fact many properties on the much targeted back roads don't even have sokak numbers, a possible reason for being targeted as they know they're unlikely to be reported.
The people staying there don't speak Turkish.
The call centre is not in Fethiye, it's in Mugla, so burgled person phones up, they don't speak Turkish, they can't give a sokak number because they don't know it, or there isn't one and they don't know what's nearby
With the best will in the world the Polis cannot send a patrol round to try and catch them in these areas.
As a result of neighbourhood watch were getting the message out to people to increase their security. Not many of the burglaries happen to Turkish people, not because Brits are being targeted, but because Turkish peoples houses are so secure they're harder to break in to.
Measures people can take include:
Learn at least the basics for ' I've been burgled, there's a burglar in the house, My address is, or I live near' write it down and keep it handy.
( if you rent your property put this in the welcome pack, ok it's not what people want to read but..)
Beware of the dog signs
Top and bottom bolts on doors
Locks on outside gates
Make sure your metal bars are done properly, some are so easy to remove
Don't advertise on Facebook where you're going or check in where you are
Don't brag in bars about where you live and how much jewellery etc you have ( it happens! )
Don't leave even the smallest of windows open, however high up
Ask transfer companies to collect you from a landmark
Get out of taxis a little bit earlier and walk the rest
Get an alarm
Get window and door alarms
Don't give spare keys to anyone you don't fully trust or know well and if you have to, eg for a property maintenance company - don't use a company that has them hanging on the wall with an address tag on them.
If you rent change the locks when you move in
Don't leave tools, garden tools etc outside, they could be used to smash their way in.
Lock interior doors when you're out ( or in , we do ) to contain the burglar in one room if possible
Just basically make it as hard as you can for them!
Loads more ideas people can add I'm sure.
P.S.
I didnt mean to give the impression another earthquake couldn't happen, just trying to show the likelihood of an earthquake big enough that you might might need to get out compared to the likelihood of being burgled.