‘Hoody’ bandit strikes homes in St Augustine Road
The common way to get in and out of the properties seems to be jumping over the wall between the church and the houses
Residents of St Augustine Road have reported an increase in attempted break-ins in the area.
Ingrid Denzin, who lives in the road, says that criminals attempted to break into her house on Sunday evening. Shortly after arriving home that evening, Ingrid heard her dog barking in the back garden and went to investigate. There she found a red ‘hoody’ (jacket) which was “soaking wet” folded over the spikes on top of her wall.
She removed the item of clothing from the wall and called a local security company. Security officers arrived and had a look around, but couldn’t find anything else suspicious.
A short while later, Ingrid’s tenant arrived home and she showed the tenant where she had found the hoody. As she was hanging the jacket over the spikes to show the tenant where it had been, “a hand shot up from the other side of the wall and grabbed it.”
She says it was an adolescent male who said he had left the jacket there because he had been in church. However, there are no church services on Sunday evenings at the Catholic Church.
“We had a bit of a tug-of-war over the hoody, with me winning. After I got the hoody back, the would-be thief strolled nonchalantly down the path and out of the church grounds into St Augustine Road.”
This seems to be a big problem in the area, as nearly all the houses surrounding the church have either had a break-in or an attempted break-in. The common way to get in and out of the properties seems to be jumping over the wall between the church and the houses. Ingrid adds that, “The church grounds is a wonderful hiding place. There are lots of shrubs there and even when I called the security company, they could not find anyone hiding there.”
