Christchurch neighbourhood teams up to track thief on CCTV cameras

CCTV footage captures the suspect looking through car windows. ​Photo / Supplied

A group of frustrated Christchurch residents may take the law into their own hands and tackle a thief they say continues to break into their cars.

The Woolston neighbours have talked about staying up all night watching the street from their garden to grab the suspect and then call the police.

The neighbours from Lane St all pitched in to buy a high-quality security camera that captures a view of their street after it has become somewhat of a hotspot for car break-ins.

However, after presenting video evidence to police, they were told there wasn’t much that could be done.

“The cops aren’t doing anything and if the cops aren’t doing anything he’s just getting away with it, like what else can we do,” Lane St resident Scott Robinson said.

Robinson said there has been an increase of car break-ins over the last four months, and the neighbourhood thinks it may be the same person committing these crimes.

“There’s so much footage … we’ve pretty much done all the hard work for them [police] but they can’t do anything else which is kind of what we expected,” he said.

A police spokesperson said “police are aware of the incident and the matter is being investigated”.

Video footage of the suspect riding a scooter has also been captured by other residents, including Woolston business owner Marcus Thompson.

Thompson captured footage of the suspect with a handbag on the handlebars of his scooter after a security guard confirmed a New World staff member had their car broken into and a handbag stolen.

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“After you put all the footage together and then you look at the guy that we think did it, he rides around on a scooter, wears the same jersey, got the same shoes on it’s pretty obvious who it is,” Robinson said.

“In the video camera footage he literally looks straight into the camera. He doesn’t care, he knows he’s not going to get caught.”

– Star News