Shattered glass, stolen children’s shoes, and families living in constant fear—this is the harsh reality faced by residents of Edgbaston, Birmingham, the UK’s burglary hotspot.
The B15 postcode, covering much of Edgbaston, has recently been identified as having the highest burglary rate in Britain. Criminals here vary from meticulous thieves who track residents’ movements to snatch valuable jewellery, to desperate crooks stealing children’s pocket money and slippers.
Two young families shared harrowing experiences of returning home to ransacked houses, shattering their belief that they lived in a safe, quiet neighbourhood. Both found their homes turned upside down, with belongings strewn across beds and floors.
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In one incident last November, a mother-of-one described how her home was burgled while she and her daughter were at choir practice. Thieves stole a TV, work laptop, some jewellery, and her child’s £60 savings. They also bizarrely emptied the kitchen of snacks, ice cream, lollies, and sweets. Among other things, they took her daughter’s schoolbag, lunch box, and trainers but left the school shoes behind.
The nurse said, “They took things, but still left things. I think they must have kids because they took my daughter’s shoes, but left her school shoes, just the trainers and slippers. They even raided the fridge and took pretty much everything—including ice cream. Who steals ice cream?”
She also lost her daughter’s Pandora jewellery, gifts from last Christmas. Police arrived swiftly after she called 999, noting they were already responding to multiple break-ins in the area that day.
Despite reassurances that repeat targeting was unlikely, the burglary left her living in fear as Christmas approached. “I’m scared. When I’m home at night, I dread something might happen. If I had the means, I’d move—but honestly, it could happen anywhere,” she said.
Statistics underline the scale of the problem. Over the past four years, the Edgbaston postcode recorded 57.7 burglary claims per 1,000 home insurance quotes, according to MoneySuperMarket. West Midlands Police reported 301 burglaries in the 12 months from October 2024 to September 2025—nearly one every day.
Among the victims was Mukul Rathore, 33, and his wife Anik Gupta, 31, who returned from a heartbreaking trip to India to find their home ransacked and thousands of pounds’ worth of wedding jewellery stolen. The couple had traveled to attend the final rites of Mukul’s critically ill father.
Mukul, a father of one, believes the burglars tracked their movements, targeting the family for their valuable gold. “They knew that families from Asian backgrounds often keep wedding jewellery at home. We never imagined we would be vulnerable, but now we feel unsafe even without the jewellery in our apartment,” he said. The couple even stayed with friends for a week after the incident, too scared to return home.
As Edgbaston wrestles with this surge in crime, families continue to share their stories of loss and unease, highlighting the urgent need for community vigilance and support.