A FAMILY whose home was targeted by thieves during the lockdown have released an image of a man they suspect of trying to steal from them, in the hope the public can help identify him.
Louise White has shared the picture, captured by CCTV cameras fixed to their Ronkswood home, after she and her husband confronted the suspected thief on their driveway on Saturday night.
They have the Ring video doorbell system and that alerted them to someone acting suspiciously outside their home in Devon Road at around 10pm.
They rushed out and managed to grab him briefly but he escaped and fled – however, he was caught on CCTV.
This followed a first incident at their home just hours after Boris Johnson’s speech introducing strict stay at home rules on
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March 23.
That night, after midnight and into the early hours of March 24, an offender was caught on the family's Ring motion detection video doorbell appearing to try and break into their Land Rover which was parked on the driveway, and trying to tamper with the Ring system.
“We were asleep, and didn’t see the person,” Mrs White said. “It was 12.30pm, we missed the Ring doorbell (alert).
"It wasn’t until the early morning my husband got up and saw there had been activity on the doorbell, and contacted police.
“Afterwards my husband installed CCTV.”
Police issued a social media appeal for information after it emerged the person had also been trying the front doors of other houses in the area.
The offender was white, aged in their 20s to 30s, just under 6ft and wearing baggy trousers and a two- tone coat with fur trim on hood.
On Saturday night just gone, April 18, at around 10pm, another unwanted visitor arrived outside the White family's home.
Mrs White said they were alerted on the Ring app to someone rummaging through items from their garage that the family had left outside their home.
“It was items going to the tip, but as the policeman said 'Although it is your rubbish, it is yours and if he takes it, it is theft,” the Ronkswood resident said.
“We had put it right up by our house, hidden behind the car. He would have had to have gone past in the day to realise there was stuff there.
“This time we both confronted him. My husband grabbed him, and made sure the cameras caught his face (before he left).
“We are not sure if it is the same person.
“It is concerning - he was touching our stuff and he could have coronavirus.
“And it is not exactly an ‘essential journey’.”
The man appears to also be in his 20s and 30s, and was wearing a blue jacket with a hoodie.
Police are continuing investigations into both incidents, in which nothing was stolen.
A spokesman from West Mercia Police’s Nunnery Safer Neighbourhood Team said: “After the first incident, we had multiple reports of that activity going on in Worcester.
“It is not clear it was the same person.
“An investigation is underway - we are going to get as much information as we can get, so would ask the public to come forward if they know anything.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting 103-S-240320.
READ MORE: Mum praises 'fantastic' midwives for delivering premature baby during lockdown
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