AN Andover pensioner has warned residents of potential dog theft attempt after he saw suspicious signs outside his home.

There were four pink chalk cross marks on the wall outside his house, which he suspects are made by dog thieves.

Colin Brown, who has a one-year-old Golden Retriever, said the signs were found on Dec 2, but the dustbin men helped erase them.

“The helpful dustbin men first saw the signs and told my wife,” Mr Brown, 70, said.

“They asked her if she knew there are suspicious signs outside our house made by potential dog thieves. She was taken aback. But they helped scrub the marks off from the wall.”

However, Mr. Brown, who lives in Floral Way, said he heard noises inside their compound on Saturday evening, causing more concerns.

“We heard quite a large bang on our porch door. It was at 6.30 pm. When I went outside with a torch, I saw that our gate was left wide open. I didn’t go out looking for people because there was a chance of them entering the house when I’m outside.”

Mr. Brown has not reported the incident to the police, but wants other residents to be alert.

Test Valley police has, however, said such concerns about signs outside houses are not substantiated.

“Over the past 6 months in the Test Valley we have had only one identified report of a dog being stolen by a stranger,” police said in a Facebook post on Dec 3.

“We regularly receive reports of suspicious incidents around dog theft, including people believing that there have had ‘signs’ placed outside of their properties to apparently indicate that there are dogs within to steal. Such concerns however are not substantiated by actual reports of dogs being taken locally.

“It may be that some offences have not been reported to police. If so this is unwise. All dogs must now be microchipped by law, and any recovered can be very easily identified and reunited with their owners.

“Dog theft is a crime that does occur nationally, but not at the rate that people often believe it to. Certainly not within the Test Valley. Our colleagues in the neighbouring Dorset & Wiltshire forces report similarly low rates within their own policing areas.

“People love their pets and theft of them would be an immensely distressing event. A lot of the concern appears however to stem from social media. Many of these posts are created and shared with good intentions, but may actually cause undue concern and distress. Dogs are not being routinely stolen from across rural areas as some of these reports appear to indicate.