THAMES Valley Police took to the internet to spend the day running a 24-hour “tweetathon”.

The force used social networking site Twitter to let its followers know about all recent burglaries reported.

As well as the tweets, assistant chief constable John Campbell and police and crime commissioner Anthony Stansfeld took part in a live webchat on burglary with members of the public.

The pair gave advice on preventing burglary as well as suggestions about what to do if you find a burglar in your home.

Mr Campbell said: “Burglary is one of our force priorities and we have had some good reductions over the last year or so in Oxford.

“We are getting hot, sunny weather now and one thing people do is leave windows and doors open, and that’s one of the things opportunity burglars look for.

“We have done hundreds of tweets and there have been lots of people tweeting back.”

A total of 33 burglaries were reported during the tweetathon.

He said the force did not have the resources to tweet like this on a regular basis but said it would consider another “tweetathon”. Burglaries which the force tweeted about included a lawnmower stolen in Iffley and a break-in through an unlocked door in Cowley.

Burglary in Oxford is down by 24 per cent on last year.