Haddington-based community safety officer PC Craig Purves’ new column gives residents the latest police news and advice.

ON MONDAY at 5.53am, an alarm was activated at a property on Market Street, Musselburgh. Officers attended and discovered the premises had been broken into.

Enquiries are ongoing and police are looking to trace a male aged 20-30 wearing white trainers, black shorts and a grey and black gilet.

Police are requesting anyone with information call 101, quoting incident number 0555 of May 31.

Gangs from cities in England are travelling to rural/coastal Scotland to deliver drugs and collect cash.

Selling heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, they use vulnerable young people to deliver drugs and this is called ‘county lines’. It is called this because the gangs use one phone number ‘line’ to run their business in your area.

When they are in the area, they will take over a person’s home by intimidation or violence.

The signs of county lines are:

  • Lots of different people visiting the property at odd times of the day and night;
  • Increase in the amount of vehicles pulling up at the property for short periods of time;
  • Increase in anti-social behaviour near the property;
  • Curtains or blinds closed all of the time;
  • Disengagement with support services.

Are you being used in this way or do you know someone who is?

Speak up and stay safe. Contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or contact police on 101 or in person by approaching a local officer.

Last Friday evening, police were called to Rannoch House on Ormiston Road, Tranent, following a complaint regarding youths running about the roof of the property.

Officers attended; however, the youths were not traced. Upon speaking to the complainer it has been highlighted that this is becoming a regular occurrence.

This is a dangerous act which could have disastrous repercussions.

Please speak to your children if you think they are involved.

At 9.05am on Saturday, police were called to a number 26 bus on Musselburgh High Street following a report of a man seen punching a dog. The bus was going from Musselburgh High Street along towards Portobello.

A witness asked the man to stop; however, he became verbally abusive towards him and made threats to assault him. The witness left the bus in Portobello.

Enquiries are ongoing to trace a man in his 30s, wearing a black tracksuit top, grey bottoms and a grey cammo cap. He wore glasses.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting incident number 1045 of May 29.

Following a call to police on Tuesday, officers traced a 46-year-old man who was on Mallard Walk, Prestonpans, trying car doors.

He was traced in possession of a number of items belonging to the owners of two separate vehicles. Following interview, he was charged with two counts of theft from a motor vehicle.

At 6.47pm on Monday at the Co-op on Duns Road, Gifford, a man entered the store under the influence and assaulted three members of the public and damaged two cars, before smashing a number of bottles which were on the shelves in the store and then fled.

Enquiries to establish who this man is are currently ongoing.

Police, the fire service and the countryside rangers have been out and about this week at local beauty spots reminding the public of their responsibilities in relation to camping, littering and fires.

There was also a lot of positive engagement with the public at Haddington Farmers Market on Saturday.

For more information on East Lothian Partnership Against Rural Crime (ELPARC), please keep an eye on the East Lothian Police social media pages.