Heartless thieves loot a dozen cars during snow chaos

Dec 16 2010 by Gary Fanning, Hamilton Advertiser

HEARTLESS thieves nicked £7000 of photographic equipment when they looted up to a dozen cars in Hamilton during last week’s snow chaos.

As the town was battered with snow, opportunists raiders took their chance to breaking into vehicle abandoned in car parks and on side roads during last Monday’s mayhem.

Three cars were targeted by vandals in the Motehill area between Monday, December 6, at 11.30am and Thursday, December 9 at 2.50am.

Thieves broke into a Peugeot 206, Renault Clio and Alfa Romeo in Strathclyde Golf Club car park.

They made off with about £7000 of photographer’s equipment, including a Nikon D3 camera, with serial number 2025558, a Nikon lens 80 to 200 zoom lens, Nikon 17 to 35 lens and Nikon flash and sat nav after they smashed the driver’s side window of the Peugeot. They left boxing gear and gloves in the car and used a sports bag to make off with the stolen photography equipment and sat-nav.

The thieves also took a BBC dark navy work jacket from the vehicle.

One motorist said: “I was sickened and shocked that people would prey on other people’s misfortune.

“It happened on the worst day of the snow.”

The vandals smashed the windscreen of the two other vehicles but nothing was stolen from them.

Between 6.30pm on Monday, December 6 and the following date at 8.30am, thieves nicked an Acer laptop, iPod and laptop after smashing the side of the window of a Vauxhall Astra abandoned in Fairhill’s Mill Road.

Between Monday, December 6 at 3.30pm and the following day at 8.30pm, a Vauxhall Movano was also broken into in Blantyre Industrial Estate. The vandals made off with a reverse camera screen worth a three-figure sum after the smashed the passenger’s front window.

Thieves even stole a vehicle service book, rear view mirror and rear windscreen wiper from a Hyundai I 10 left in Highstonehall Road, near Neilsland Primary School, between noon last Tuesday and the following day at 6.30pm.

And several cars were targeted in the Earnock Road, the back road between Hamilton and East Kilbride.

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman appealed for witnesses to the incident and warned drivers not to leave valuables in their vehicles.

“These car break-ins appear to be opportunistic in nature due to the weather.

“It is important not to leave valuables in cars, particularly in the run up to the festive period.

“All sat-navs and CD steroes should be taken out of cars.”