Gardien Security News: Victims fight back!

Mum rallies street to fight crooks.
A MUM turned detective after thieves targeted her street. Ann Thornton took the law into her own hands after a group of men drove along in broad daylight and stole from about eight gardens.Unhappy with the police response, she visited 90 neighbours and made a list of stolen items before urging them to take a stand against crime.An antique water tub and a barbecue worth more than £500 were stolen from her garden in August. Thieves even took her garden gate.They also targeted neighbours and took a £200 exhaust pipe, a new cooker and a partially-built greenhouse. She reported the thefts to police, who had visited the street when another neighbour alerted them.But when police took two days to take her statement, she became frustrated and took things into her own hands.Ann, 53, spent hours visiting families around Kings Road, Rochdale, to catalogue stolen items. One neighbour, Betty Dalton, 77, told how she was intimidated by thieves after catching them in the act.Ann, a mum-of-two, then encouraged residents to tell of their concerns about increasing crime at an area meeting - in a speech met with rapturous applause. Ann, a charity employment adviser, said: "Three men spent 30 minutes driving down the street in a flat-bed lorry, just taking things from gardens. "My 15-year-old daughter was in and glued to the TV at the time. It's frightening to think what could've happened if she'd disturbed them."It's unbelievable they did this in broad daylight."The police should have come out to see me straight away".