OPPORTUNISTIC theft from a car, vandalism and drug offences are among the crimes in the Tavistock area.

• A VULNERABLE man was talked out of jumping from a viaduct over the Brentor road, Tavistock on Friday afternoon. PCSOs and PCs from Tavistock Police Station attended the incident at about 3pm on September 29 and persuaded the man to return to safety. He was subsequently taken to hospital.

• POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a vehicle was vandalised in Lydford during the afternoon of Sunday, September 24. Offenders smashed the nearside rear passenger window of a red Hyundai parked opposite the Lydford Country House Hotel on School Road. CR/082443

• A FEMALE cannabis plant in full flower was seized from two men in a parked car at Harrowbeer airfield during the early hours of Sunday, September 24. The cannabis flower, in a tin, was confiscated by the police and the two men were given a cannabis warning. CR/082272

• AN OPPORTUNISTIC thief stole £7 in cash and a mobile phone was taken from an unlocked car on a driveway in Whitham Park, Tavistock overnight on Sunday to Monday, September 24 to 25. CR082550

• THIEVES were disturbed apparently trying to break into a parked Vauxhall car on the track to Yellowmead Farm off the B3357 Tavistock to Princetown road. They damaged the lock sometime between 11.30am and 5pm on Sunday, September 24. CR/082597

• AN OFFENDER pulled a wooden shop sign off the wall and snapped it in two outside Costa Coffee in Brook Street, Tavistock at around 4.15pm on Wednesday afternoon, September 27. CR/083424

• A MAN was disturbed rummaging in a garage at a house in Chaucer Road, Tavistock between 8.30pm and 8.45pm on Wednesday, September 27. A carer in the house at the time, attending to the occupant, came out and disturbed the stranger, who swore at her and ran away. CR083622

• A LAPTOP worth £800 was stolen from an unlocked car parked in Deer Park Lane, Tavistock overnight on Wednesday to Thursday, September 27 to 28. The owner had left her property in the vehicle while staying the night at a friend’s. CR/083633

• A GROUP of five young people were caught on video camera smashing up goal posts and netting in the play park on Bannawell Street, Tavistock at about 6.30pm on Thursday, September 28. Police are appealing for information. CR083824

• A CAMPAIGN has been launched by police officers in Tavistock to crack down on dangerous driving on the town’s roundabouts.

• PCs and PCSOs report seeing motorists routinely driving straight over the centre of the ‘flat’ roundabouts, and even driving the wrong way around them — nearly colliding with other drivers.

‘A lot of people don’t observe the rules of roundabouts,’ said a police spokesman. ‘We have seen a number of near misses and we have been observing people and are going to be sending out letters to anyone we see doing this with words of advice. We want people in Tavistock to start observing the rules of roundabouts.’

He said the problems occurred on ‘flat’ roundabouts in the town because people were just driving over them like they were junctions.

‘The problem is people seem to think it is OK,’ he added. We’ve had people doing it in front of us. There’s a real cross section of people doing this too, young people through to older people. We want to make people understand that roundabout discipline still counts on flat roundabouts.’

PCs and PCSOs are stepping up observation of roundabouts over the coming weeks. ‘There are three roundabouts in Tavistock which are really dangerous,’ he said. ‘Our message to people is that they may have an accident, and they may face prosecution.’

• A LOCAL man has been released by police pending further enquiries following a stop and search exercise in Tavistock on Friday night (September 29) in which police found a quantity of Class B drugs.

The man was arrested in the town by CID officers and taken to Charles Cross Police Station in Plymouth overnight.

• A 38-YEAR-old man was arrested in the early hours of Saturday (September 30) in connection with an assault in Tavistock and will appear at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on October 19.