Owner catches couple who broke into keyless car to smoke cannabis
... after smell made wife think he was cheating
‘Stealing my stuff’
FINDING fake fingernails in her husband’s car was suspicious enough.
But when Muhannad Kaddour’s wife also smelled cannabis in his Lexus RX400, she accused him of having an affair with another woman.
Fortunately he was able to prove he was not cheating on her – but only after he learnt to his horror that a couple had been breaking into his car at night and getting ‘up to no good’.
After catching them red-handed, the father of two locked them in the vehicle and called the police.
But he was stunned when the eight officers who arrived told him there was nothing they could do.
Mr Kaddour, 32, believes the couple were using a high-tech signal jammer to access his keyless car outside his house in Leytonstone, east London – using it as a drug den while helping themselves to his possessions left inside.
However, police allowed the pair to walk free after they claimed they had noticed the car’s window was open and got in to ‘look after it’.
Mr Kaddour, a software developer, said: ‘These two scumbags have been getting into my car, stealing my stuff, making it dirty, smoking their drugs in there, and now they are going to let them go. It’s like theft is not a crime any more. There’s no point in catching anybody as they just let them go.
‘ The police don’t bother catching the criminals. Then we catch them and the police let them go.’
After a number of thefts from vehicles in the area, Mr Kaddour discovered £150 worth of items missing from his car last month, including sunglasses, phone chargers and his daughter’s book bag.
But since there was no evidence of a break-in and the car was still locked, there was little he could do.
A week ago, a woman’s fake fingernail turned up in the footwell of the vehicle, prompting questions from his wife.
Mr Kaddour said: ‘She was like every woman, saying, “What the hell is that doing in there? Who was with you in the car?”
‘Then my wife started smelling cannabis in the car too. I said, “I don’t smoke it, I don’t know”.’
Convinced that someone must be getting into his vehicle without his knowledge, Mr Kaddour began double checking it was locked each night by clicking his remote key from inside the house through the window.
He finally caught the pair on Friday and noticed the woman was holding an electronic gadget that allows criminals to enter keyless cars. He took a picture as evidence.
Mr Kaddour added: ‘Breaking into my car on its own should be a criminal offence, especially with the intention of stealing.
‘It seemed straightforward. I didn’t think I needed more evidence. I had two people locked in my car, no one had hurt them – I’d caught them in the act.’
Since the police allowed the pair to walk free, Mr Kaddour and his family have been living in fear of reprisals and he has changed the locks on his house and installed CCTV.
He said the woman walked past the next day with an empty pushchair, giving him an opportunity to film her in daylight, but the police still failed to act.
Mr Kaddour has now made a formal complaint against Scotland Yard and plans to raise the matter with his local MP.
The Metropolitan Police said: ‘Police attended the scene after a man reported he had detained two suspected car thieves.
‘However, officers were satisfied that there was no evidence of any offences after speaking to them in detail. An individual made a complaint and it’s being looked into.’