A car was seen on fire in a residential street amid a spate of vehicle break-ins in a Cardiff neighbourhood. Residents on Cambridge Street in Grangetown say the unknown Ford was left abandoned on the road, before its windows were smashed in.
It was then engulfed in flames a few days later at around 11pm on Monday, June 27. The sound of the car horn and alarm woke up the "whole street", with people "rushing around, panicking" as they moved their own cars away from the fire.
It is unclear whether the vehicle was deliberately set on fire or if it was due to an electrical fault, but some residents believe it is an escalation of what has been described as an "epidemic" of violent car break-ins in Grangetown. You can read all our Cardiff stories here.
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Riyaz Gehlan, 47, who lives round the corner from the damaged vehicle on Avondale Crescent said: "The horn was going off, the alarm was going off. People's cars were parked next to it. They were moving the cars, rushing around, panicking, knocking doors, trying to get everyone to move their cars."
Riyaz's wife, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the scene was "scary" for onlookers and revealed it's had an impact on her children. "Our kids are scared. [My daughter] goes to school that way and she was scared even to go past after the incident," she said.
On the wider issue of car-break-ins, Riyaz said: "A lot of car windows are getting broken into. Our next door neighbours had theirs done twice in the last month or so. He had his Mercedes done first, they took his gym kit, and then he bought the Range Rover and they did the Range Rover about a week ago."
Saima Anwar, 38, is one resident whose car window has been smashed recently. She said that every day she wakes up to another story about a vehicle being broken into overnight on social media. She has always feared being targeted, and she and her husband have been checking their car windows every morning.
On Wednesday morning, June 29, just two days after the abandoned vehicle was set on fire, they discovered they were the latest victims of the car break-ins, just as they were about to set off to Legoland with their children. "The criminal rummaged through the glove compartment and central console only to find tissues, chewing gum and baby wipes," she said. "At first I suggested we forget the trip and head back home, but my husband refused, saying, 'No, why should we let these scumbags ruin our plans?'"
She continued: " It left me so angered and annoyed. More so that this has been going on for such a long time and I don’t even know if anything is being done about it," adding: " I know so many people who have had their cars damaged."
Matthew Scanlon, who lives on Cambridge Street, noticed the burnt-out Ford the next day when he was walking with his girlfriend to work. The 29-year-old described the incident as "very distressing" in light of the "epidemic of car break-ins and thefts around Grangetown".
"There have also been attempts as well by individuals entering people's homes. It's starting to feel very frightening living around here to be honest," he said. The IT engineer, who has lived in the area for six years, said the crime was unprecedented, but now it seems like "every day" residents are reporting break-ins to their cars and houses.
"I have a car myself. I wake up every morning, I go outside and I'm stood wondering: 'Am I going to be next?'" he said. "The one thing that really worries me is that the police are either unaware of this, or they're woefully underprepared in resolving it. Being in Grangetown, the Cardiff Bay police station is literally just across the bridge and it feels like they're not taking any action at all in order to police the community."
Asked whether he thought the burning car is related to the wider problem, he said: "You think maybe something electrical happened, or something like that. But my girlfriend pointed out the car was broken into the day before, so it seems like it was set alight.
"There's been a massive, massive rise in the amount of car break-ins that have happened recently, and it seems like this is a logical step-up. If there are a large amount of car break-ins, you've got to expect this to happen at some point."
Matthew also pointed out the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators, despite the abundance of CCTV evidence gathered by residents. "The problem is, on all of that footage all you ever see is people with hoodies and masks. Obviously with the pandemic, the rise in masks has skyrocketed. It's not uncommon for people to go out with a mask - so trying to identify the individuals going out an doing it is going to be incredibly difficult."
A resident, who has lived on Grange Place for more than 30 years and wanted to remain anonymous, also thought that car break-ins were becoming a "concern" in the area. "I belong to the Grangetown community news WhatsApp group, and it's happening pretty much all around Grangetown where cars are getting deliberately broken into, windows smashed etc," she said.
"Whether they're young kids doing it for devilment, or they're actually doing it with a mind to steal something from inside the car, I don't know. The police were out the other week apparently, but in the daytime - these people are doing it in the dead of night, and there's no police around."
She said in the three decades she had lived in the "lovely, community-minded" part of Grangetown, she had "never had any problems", but now she is considering getting a doorbell camera. "People are frightened to leave their cars out now. My next door neighbour posted on the WhatsApp group for the street that nine cars were done the other week."
Another resident who wanted to remain anonymous said: "I volunteer locally and spend my life in Grangetown and I know there are cars being broken into daily. It’s disheartening", though she added she thinks the car fire is an "isolated incident".
Grangetown Councillor Sara Robinson said she shared the community's frustrations with the issue. "I live in Grangetown - I have these concerns about my car and my property. We've been keeping an extra vigilant eye out for people on my street, because we know the perpetrators are using bikes to identify the cars," she said.
She talked of the importance of residents reporting "every single incident" to the police. "A lot of people think, 'It's not worth it, it's only the windscreen, I'll just pay the excess and stop my premium going up'.
"There are lots of reasons why people don't report and we get that, but where possible and where reasonable, unless people report, we're not going to be able to get the policing resources we need in the community.
"There's a really good online reporting tool that you can use. You can do it in your own time, on demand, whenever is convenient for you to do it, and it does get logged."
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: "Shortly after 11.25pm on June 27 th South Wales Police was informed of a car on fire on Cambridge Street in Grangetown. The matter was dealt with by the fire service."
On the issue of car break-ins in Grangetown, Chief Insepctor John Wade, from South Wales Police, said: “We understand that being a victim of car crime is upsetting, costly and an inconvenience. It takes just seconds to smash a window, steal something and leave the area.
"There have been a number of incidents in Grangetown and officers are focusing their attention on this issue with regular patrols. Please remember to remove all items, particularly those of value, and lock doors, as unfortunately there are individuals who will take advantage. Please report any incidents by calling or 101 or reporting online https://bit.ly/SWPReportOnline."
A spokesperson for South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: "At approximately 11:08pm on Monday the 27 th of June 2022, we received reports of a vehicle fire near Cambridge Street, Grangetown. Crews from Cardiff Central Fire and Rescue Station attended the scene. A stop message was received at approximately 11:26pm."
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