THIEVES have been targeting women dropping their children off by car at school.
At least two crimes have happened on the same day close to a couple of rural schools around Huddersfield.
It seems the thieves are peering into cars parked near schools looking for handbags or other valuables left inside while children are being taken into the playground.
A handbag was taken from a car at Church Street in Emley at around 9am on Tuesday morning by a thief who smashed the driver’s window to get it.
At about 3.30pm the same day a thief broke a passenger window on a car at Tenter Close in Skelmanthorpe and stole a handbag from the front passenger seat.
These crimes should be seen as a warning to others that opportunist thieves are on the prowl and take just seconds to strike.
Never leave anything valuable on show – even for a few minutes. Always take your handbags with you.
Once they are stolen the misery and hassle starts as the victim has to have credit cards stopped, change locks on their homes if their keys have gone too and make an insurance claim.
A suspect was seen at the scene of the Skelmanthorpe crime – and he is quite distinctive so we hope someone can put a name to him.
He is white and thin with ginger hair and a tattoo on one hand.
Thieves also raided two cars at a new housing development at Lepton.
They broke into the vehicles at Hanby Close on Tuesday night or into the early house of Wednesday morning, stealing Tom Tom satellite navigation systems from both.
They also stole a Blackberry mobile phone from one and compact discs from another.
One suspect was seen.
He is thought to be white, around 5ft 7ins and wore a three-quarter-length jacket with a zip-up front, dark jeans and a hat described as being tight to his head.
Thieves stole a Motorola compact disc player after prising open a car door in Kirkburton.
The car was attacked in the car park of The Foxglove pub at Penistone Road on Tuesday night.
