POLICE in Okehampton are seeking witnesses to an assault on a young man on Mill Road near the entrance to Simmons Park around 3pm on Saturday, January 18.

He was ambushed by another man who hit him on the left hand side of his face. The offender then pushed the victim into a hedge and hit him in the face a further four or five times.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the police quoting crime reference CR/005112/20.

• A property in Hessary Terrace, Princetown, had a rock thrown at the living room window causing damage at around 7.30pm on Saturday, February 2. Anyone who saw suspicious behaviour or vehicles at this time in the area, contact 101 online quoting crime reference CR/009478/20.

• A suspicious vehicle and people were reported to Devon and Cornwall Police last Friday (January 31) after visiting a farm in the Launceston area looking for scrap metal, batteries etc. The two men said they were from Salisbury.

The vehicle, a red Ford Ranger, is known to police in connection with thefts from rural locations. Police said the men and vehicle could reappear anywhere in Devon and Cornwall.

A police spokesperson said: ‘We quite often find that thefts from farms come within a few weeks of visits like this; they were casing the place and may come back for anything that they have seen.

‘Burglaries and thefts in urban areas had been on the decline, due to widespread implementation of CCTV and domestic security improvements like uPVC doors and windows. Thieves have moved out to rural areas where CCTV and security has not yet been implemented. This has been proving crippling for farms in the home counties, where the trend has hit first. We are now seeing more and more farms implementing CCTV for this reason, which they have deployed to also give them the ability to monitor stock, giving a double benefit.’

Any information report online at [email protected]