Brazen thieves roll up and steal turf from Telford garden
Telford pensioners Carole and Gerald Brookes could not believe their eyes when they looked out of their window first thing in the morning – and saw part of their lawn was missing.
The couple then checked their closed circuit television footage, and were astonished to see two people brazenly removing the turf from their garden on Telford's Brookside estate, before running off with it in the direction of a nearby block of flats.
The theft happened shortly after Mr Brookes, 70, and Mrs Brookes, 68, had gone to bed.
Mr Brookes said: "It was incredible. I have never seen anything like it. I will get some grass seed and they can have that next time.
"We had only been in bed an hour. We reckon they must have been waiting until the lights went out."
The footage, from the early hours of Sunday, shows two people in hooded jackets walking along the path towards their bungalow in Beaconsfield, and one of them stands as lookout while the other clambers over the fence.
One thief then sets to work rolling up the lawn, before gathering it up and handing it over to the accomplice.
The thief then returns and takes another strip of lawn, before fleeing with his accomplice towards the neighbouring flats.
Mr Clarke, a retired taxi driver, said another one of his neighbours had also had part of their lawn removed. He said when he and his wife moved into their property, in January this year, they had been told by a neighbourhood warden that there had been a spate of garden thefts. On one occasion a thief who had been disturbed left a roll of turf hanging over a fence.
Community Support Officer Chris Barrett, based at Madeley police station, said he was aware that turf had been stolen from a garden in Beaconsfield, and that a neighbouring house had also had a shed broken into.
