Car thieves leave family ‘frightened to death’
DAD AND NEIGHBOUR CHASE OFF CROOKS
A DAD-OF-TWO says his family have been left ‘scared to death’ after two brazen thugs tried to steal his wife’s car from their family home.
Darren Driver, 47, was in his home on Hallbottom Street in Newton, Hyde, as wife Heather headed out to pick up their 18-year-old son Jacob from work just before 10pm.
When Heather, 43, opened the door, she saw two men around her Fiat 500 and screamed for her husband’s help.
Darren grabbed a tree lopper to defend himself and headed outside to try to scare the pair off.
He said: “It was just a normal Friday night – my wife went to the chippy for tea and my daughter Grace, she’s 14, was upstairs watching something.
“My son gives his mum a ring at about 9.40pm to pick him up from work so she gets her keys, opens the front door to the porch and sees two fellas around her car.
“They’re yelling at her ‘stay in the house, we just want the car’ so I grabbed my tree lopper to defend myself – the end fell off so it was just basically a big stick – and they ran off.
“Then they came back to try and get the OBD reader from the front seat and smashed the front window.”
One of Darren’s neighbours came out at this point and was able to help him chase the pair off – but the family were left shaken and worried that the crooks might come back.
Despite the damage, the family were able to take the Fiat to a relative’s house and store it in their garage until it can be repaired.
Darren, who has lived in the area for 15 years, said: “We’ve never had anything, not a smashed window, or a scrape, nothing. It’s just scary, they don’t give a damn, it’s not their property so they don’t care.
“It was a bit of an ordeal, it’s not something you’d expect at 9.45 on a Friday. If they’d had 30 seconds longer they would have just driven the car away.
“It’s one of those that gives you the fear of retribution more than anything. My daughter’s frightened to death, my wife’s frightened to death, it’s just dealing with the aftermath now.
“The violence of it is absurd, they were so brazen – normally if you disturb a thief they’ll run away but to come back after you’ve been disturbed by a pretty big guy with a big stick, that shows some brass that.
“They said ‘we just want the car’ but it’s not your car, what gives you the right to take it? It’s my wife’s pride and joy, we wash it every weekend and she loves it – it’s so, so frustrating.”
Greater Manchester Police was approached for comment.