A CB radio nut has been taken off the air by thieves who scaled 30ft up a house to steal a giant aerial.

Anthony Hall said he was left "gobsmacked" after discovering the 29ft Solarcom antenna had been removed from a chimney stack on his semi-detached house in Holme Wood, Bradford.

Now all the 32-year-old Elvis fan has left to amuse himself are his two trusty cockatiels, Cheeky and Sugar.

Mr Hall, who has had a CB radio since he was 16, said he felt lost without his link to the outside world and added it would take him months to save up for a new aerial as he was on sickness benefit.

"I'd only moved the aerial on to the roof in March. It used to be in my back garden but I'd noticed some rogues eyeing it up from the street so I moved it," he said.

"On the night it disappeared I'd been out of the house for a couple of hours. When I came back one of my neighbours said my aerial had fallen down but when I took a closer look it had disappeared.

"I think whoever stole it used a ladder I had padlocked to a fence in my garden to get some of the way up and then climbed the rest. I feel gutted because that's my hobby gone down the drain."

It was American movie star Kris Kristofferson who sparked the craze for Citizen's Band radios in Britain when he appeared in the film Convoy in 1978. Mr Hall, who was ten at the time, watched in awe as Kristofferson's folk hero truck driver evaded the police using his CB radio and the help of fellow renegade truckers.

Six years later, Anthony bought his own 'rig', which he set up in his bedroom and even adopted the handle, CB-talk for a name, of his film hero Rubber Duck.

For 18 years Anthony has trawled the airwaves under various handles - including Popeye, Wooden Heart after the Elvis song, and currently Mr Mobile Man - until the theft between 6pm and 9.30pm on Monday.

He said: "When I was 16 I had an overactive thyroid gland which left me bed-bound so the CB was my outside link to the world.

"I often speak to truck drivers and help them navigate their way around Bradford but all of that will have to stop."

If you have any information about the incident contact Odsal Police on 01274 376659.