Residents are being urged to remain vigilant following a spate of burglaries in west Cumbria.

Four burglaries have been reported in Workington since the start of December.

In three incidents, thieves have got into the property through an insecure door and have struck when the occupants have been asleep.

The first incident happened on December 1, when a purse was stolen from an address on Lonsdale Street between 7am and 8.30am.

A wallet and handbag were also taken from a different address on December 3.

Burglaries also took place at properties on North Watt Street and Duke Street overnight between December 4 and December 5.

A handbag containing cards and cash was taken from the property on North Watt Street, while two handbags containing cards and cash were taken from Duke Street.

Detective Constable Dave Matthews, from West Cumbria CID, is calling on residents to remain vigiliant.

He said: "Those responsible are operating during the early hours, they seem to favour addresses in the areas around Senhouse Street and Station Road.

"They target insecure houses for a matter of seconds and even enter when occupants are upstairs asleep.

“They have also been known to target addresses first thing where partners leave for work at different times often forgetting to lock the doors.

"They remove easily concealable items such as money, wallets, purses, bankcards and usually spend no more than a couple of minutes in each address.

“Please lock all doors and windows, even when you are going for instance to the newspaper shop or popping to a neighbour’s address – this is the exact window of opportunity that the perpetrators will take advantage of.”