Now Addingham falls victim to car key crimes

Thieves walked into a house in Addingham, which was unlocked, to take the car keys and steal an Audi parked outside.

These types of crimes are called Yor-Key crimes by the police who have seen an increase in them in the Ilkley, Menston and Burley-in-Wharfedale areas.

The police have issued lots of warnings to alert people to keep their doors locked and to hide their car keys or keep them out of sight

The Chairman of Addingham Parish Council, Gordon Campbell, said: "This is the first of these types of crimes to have happened in Addingham, despite the amount of police warnings to raise awareness of them.

"Somebody entered a house which was unlocked and took the keys and stole an Audi A4 and it is the crime they are telling everyone to be careful about. There has been a spate of these crimes in Burley and Menston."

Fish hooks have been pushed through letter boxes to try to hook keys to enable thieves to steal cars.

There has been an increase in these types of crimes to steal high-performance cars because thieves are finding it difficult to combat the high tech anti-crimes systems they have, such as immobilisers.

Crime in the village has increased since last year, according to a survey carried out between January 1 2002 to March 20. Only two crimes were reported in January, but up until March 20, 23 crimes have been reported compared to only 17 last year. These 23 crimes include damage to the Bowling Green and Scout Hut, where windows have been smashed; the smashing of two rear window screens, the theft of a lawnmower, the theft of eight stones from a garden patio, a wagon being stolen from the cricket field and a report of a domestic indecent assault.

There were six crimes reported on one day of thefts from sheds and garages.

There was damage to a vehicle when a someone broke into a shed stole a spade and used it to smash it and in Low Mill a car was broken into and a stereo was stolen.