YARD BURGLARS SEEN ON CCTV
Thieves cut through fence to smash cars and take taxi:
TWO burglars who smashed their way into a taxi and bus compound are being hunted by police.
The pair were captured by CCTV cameras when they broke into the compound of Huw’s Coaches, cutting their way in through the fence.
They smashed up cars and forced their way onto buses, taking the driver ‘modules’ which store information on passenger numbers.
It is the second raid on a bus company premises in just over a week, but it is not known if the incidents are being linked.
The compound is owned by Tacsis Huw, of Penygroes, and is also used by their coach arm, Cerbydau Huw’s Coaches.
Sion Edwards, from Tacsis Huw, said: “One of our drivers came round this morning and told me that somebody had smashed one of our staff’s cars which had been parked outside the yard in Cibyn (Caernarfon). They had also taken one of our taxis from the yard – a Fiat Doblo – and driven it away. Unfortunately, the keys had been left inside it. It was later found by the scrap yard on the estate.”
Mr Edwards said that he had gone to the compound and checked the CCTV cameras.
He said: “They had been inside the service buses which we use around Caernarfon.
“They had taken one of the drivers ‘modules’ – which keeps information about the numbers of passengers etc - and had used one of the hammers for emergency use to smash our driver’s car window as they left.” Mr Edwards said the intruders had also taken a £10 money float. He said the burglars had used a crowbar to try and break open a lock across the main gates in a possible bid to steal one of the buses but had failed in their attempt. Luckily, a driver who had returned to the compound just after the incident, was not hurt in the break-in, between 11.30pm on Saturday night and 1.30am on Sunday. The burglary comes after an Express bus driver was attacked and robbed as he locked the gates at Express Motors’ depot in Blaenau Ffestiniog at 11pm on December 30, just hours before the firm stopped running services.
During the attack, the offender entered the victim’s car parked close by, and stole a backpack with cash before running off towards Tanygrisiau.
The victim wasn’t seriously injured but he left “extremely shaken.”
Police and forensic officers were at the Cibyn industrial estate, Caernarfon, on Sunday, scouring the scene for evidence.
Mr Edwards said: “It’s difficult to say why this has happened.
“I don’t want to point my fingers at anybody, but I’ve had quite a lot of response already after I posted a CCTV clip on my Facebook page.”
He said he had passed on that information to the police.
Mr Edwards said: “They were here for about two hours. We have had no trouble like this before in Caernarfon.”
North Wales Police have been approached for a comment.