REDHEAD MYSTERY: Police urge recommend neighbourhood watch.

NOBODY with red hair has lived at Ruci Tueli’s house in Wilson St, Newtown, for at least 20 years.

So she was suspicious when a stranger knocked on her backdoor and asked for a John Taylor, a mid-thirties man with red hair.

And she had good reason to be cautious.

Newtown residents living on Wilson St had been issued police notices to be on the lookout after a recent burglary in the area.

Ruci 15, a Wellington High School student, was enjoying the beginning of her school holidays lying in bed when she heard a knocking on the side window.

“I thought it was [a school friend], so I just left it for him to come round the back.”

The doorknocker, dressed in a long black leather jacket and a black leather beret, walked round to the back of the house, looked around the back yard then knocked on the back door.

STRANGER ALERT: Ruci Tueli and her family are taking steps towards making their home more secure

After she told the doorknocker John Taylor did not live at her house, he left, apologising and saying that perhaps he had moved out.

She says this is unlikely, considering her family has been living at the Wilson St address since the late 1970s.

Ruci reported the incident to Wellington Police’s burglary attendance squad, who took details of the doorknocker and told her to continue to “keep an eye out”.

New Zealand Police say the number one burglar deterrent is a burglar alarm and they are urging people to protect themselves from being easy targets by keeping houses as secure as possible.

Wellington Police are offering help to people interested in starting up neighbourhood support groups.

For more information on neighbourhood support, and how to start a group visit www.ns.org.nz