Tradesmen left furious by theft

Electrical contractor Martin Baird was forced to fork out for new kit to ensure he could keep working after the theft, which happened outside his home on Thursday night.

Martin’s work van was parked near his home in Kenilworth Gardens when the raiders struck.

They took De Walt and Hilti power tools and electrical testing gear, leaving so little sign of their night time activities Martin had driven all the way to Manchester before he noticed.

He said: “Normally I park the van on the drive but that night there was already a car there so I left it on the street.

“It’s a marked works van, you just think it’ll be safe.

“They say to not leave valuables in the van but it’d be an hour’s job every morning and every night to empty it.

“I got in the next morning and there was no sign.

“The only thing was the door open alarm kept going off.

“I picked my mate up to go to work in Manchester and thought it was his door.

“I asked him to check and it kept going.

“Eventually we realised it was the back but we thought nothing of it.”

It was only when dad Martin, 25, arrived at his work site he realised what had happened.

He said: “I opened up the van for the tools and they weren’t there.

“They’d taken the high value stuff and left hand tools behind.

“There was no sign of damage, it’s like they’ve used a master key to open up the van.

“They knew exactly what they were doing.”

Martin had to cancel a day’s work to drive back to Blackpool and deal with the aftermath of the theft.

He has also had to spend thousands on new kit to keep his business going.

“You’ve got to do it. I feel like I’ve been kicked.”

And Martin, who works under the brand Future Technical Services, believes he’s not alone.

“They’ve done the same to the guy who lives next door but one. There’s a few others in the street. We need to get a grip on this, these people need to be caught.”

Blackpool Police have issued a number of alerts over thefts from vehicles in South Shore in recent weeks.

Anyone with information on the theft should call 101 quoting log 0486 of September 8.