Earlier this year, a gang of four men were caught on CCTV stripping a car of its parts for over an hour, finally leaving the scene of the crime in their white transit van. The four men broke into a car park, the Dreamer Bedroom and Kitchen Design car park to be exact, and immediately started stripping the car down: the wheels, entire interior, bonnet and doors were all removed and taken by the gang. Although this serious of events actually happened in early July, police are only just releasing the footage and images now.
This move seems to be down to the police desperately wanting to identify all the men involved in this shocking behaviour that took place at roughly 6am. The pictures of the thief’s sparked outrage online with many of the 22,000 Facebook followers of used car portal Motors showing their anger.
From all this though, many are asking what possessed the men to carry out this act in a locked down, secure car park that they must have known was under surveillance. Clearly the thought of getting caught wasn’t enough to deter the men from systematically stripping down the high value car and slowly taking their time piling up the parts and moving on elsewhere. What makes this entire case much more challenging for the police is how long they’ve decided to keep the images private, several weeks have passed since the incident has happened, so chasing up with the people involved could prove even more difficult given the amount of time that has lapsed.
This is something that various readers have picked up on when passing comment on the story online. Although there are some that are quite stereotypical in their opinion of the criminals involved and their social backgrounds. Others, however, are much more concerned with why these images have remained in the dark for long, and why the police have almost been sat on their fingers waiting to bring it to the public’s attention.
This type of behaviour and situation will no doubt have many drivers and car lovers weary about leaving their pride and joy locked away, even in what they believe to be a safe car park, when such individuals can break in and strip down a car in such a way that there is no immediate response to their actions/crime. While this is a clear issue, it is important to remember that, so far, this has been an isolated incident, so there might not be any obvious risk to any other car owners.
That being said, do try and be extra safe when leaving your car in parking lots, etc., not to mention if you think you might know something or be able to help in any way, please get in touch Humberside Police by quoting the reference number: 1984910. At this moment in time, the police and all people involved need as much help as possible to ensure that they finally catch up with these criminals.
HI I saw the video and stills in hdm on 5th september .