Car radio thief caught red-handed in Dewsbury

Pat Holroyd was half an hour into her art class at Westborough Methodist Church in Dewsbury when she heard the alarm of her MG TF convertible going off in the car park.

“I thought, ‘that’s my alarm’, because it’s quite a distinctive alarm and it doesn’t go off for nothing,” she said.

Mrs Holroyd, 61, went outside and saw a man sitting in the car’s front seat trying to force the radio out.

“I shouted at him but he didn’t get out, so I shouted again and walked towards him,” Mrs Holroyd said.

The man ran towards Green Lane, leaving blood in the car from where he had cut himself trying to force out the radio, and Mrs Holroyd called the police.

“The police came very quickly and the response was absolutely fantastic,” she said.

“They found the culprit and had arrested him within 40 minutes and he was charged within 24 hours.”

Mrs Holroyd, of Mount Gardens, Cleckheaton, said she had left the roof of her car down as she often did, but this was the first time anyone had tried to steal anything from it.

“I’ve had it seven-and-a-half years and I’ve never had any bother,” she said.

The attempted theft happened at around 10.30am last Monday, August 13.

A police spokesman said a 35-year-old man had been charged with the offence.