AssetID: 55928051
Headline: Moment balaclava-clad thieves make off with businessman’s bronze deer - minutes before his daughter arrives home
Caption: WORDS BYLINE: Dee Lukasik Eerie CCTV captured the moment a group of thieves broke into a businessman’s garden and made off with his collection of lifesize bronze deer worth £10,000. The 16-minute raid on July 30 saw the balaclava-wearing men enter David Noyes’ home in Horton Kirby and smash through the concrete bases of the decorative animals. Footage which has been viewed more than a million times online shows the burglars struggling to carry the deer out to a waiting vehicle - just minutes before David’s daughter Sophia returned home. The father of four was at home at the time, but didn’t hear the thieves carrying out their brazen theft as that part of the garden is some distance from the house. He said: “Imagine [Sophia] coming home and confronting three of them - they were all blacked out, with hoods, balaclavas and gloves on. It was frightening.” The four stolen statues were part of a collection of six deer displayed in the grounds of David’s two-acre property. He also owns bronze gorillas, a giraffe, a crocodile, a lion and sheep. The CCTV earlier shows the men approaching a wooden gate next to the main metal entrance at 11:30pm and repeatedly pulling and shaking it until it partially came away from its hinges. Once they were able to open it, they went straight towards the deer - leading David to suspect someone involved knew about them because they cannot be easily spotted from the road. They quickly got to work - smashing through the concrete bases holding the deer statues in place. They were then captured on video struggling to carry them across the lawn to a waiting vehicle parked on the road outside. At one point, one of the thieves can be seen falling over and then stopping to catch his breath. David said: “For the couple of days afterwards, it did make you paranoid. You’re constantly looking at what’s happening. We had the cameras, but we didn’t have a sensor alarm. We have now.” He posted the CCTV footage on Facebook - receiving more than a million views and 600 comments. In a twist to the story, the deer were returned by the police last week after a chance sighting of them seemingly abandoned outside a property in nearby Longfield by one of his friends. The grandfather-of-11 added: “They said to me, ‘I think I’ve just driven past your deer’. They were displayed literally exactly the same as they were in my garden.” David believes the widespread attention surrounding the theft may have made the distinctive statues difficult to dispose of. He said: “I’m not letting [the thieves] get away with it. They’ve seriously overstepped the mark. They’ve gone onto my land and the way they were dressed was absolutely frightening.” In the meantime, police are appealing for witnesses and footage from the area around the time.
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PersonInImage: David Noyes describing the burglary