Sheffield family 'feeling unsafe in own home' flee city after their property is targeted again

Vandals smashed the front window of the family’s house on Montrose Road at around 1am on Sunday (13 September) and caused damage to the front door. They also “destroyed” both of the family’s cars, shattering several windows.

It follows an attack on 21 August, believed to be by the same people, when both cars had paint stripper poured over them. In May, one of their car windscreens was smashed before about £2000 worth of patio furniture was stolen. The father, who did not want to be named through fear of further attacks, estimated the total cost of the damage to be about £20,000.

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He said his family is now leaving Sheffield for their own safety.

The father said: “I have got three young children, they are terrified. There are so many repeated incidents in this area but the police are not interested.

"We’re now having to leave, we have packed up. The police were worse than useless. It’s been abject and pitiful.”

The father said the family want to leave the city permanently and may temporarily take their children out of school. He believes they have been deliberately targeted after their house extension “made some noise and interrupted people parking on the road.”

The father said: “The first attack [on 21 August] was the day after the skips were cleared from the extension.

"I’m furious, indescribably cross. I have been here for eight years, it’s been a lovely area and we have done this house up, spent a lot of time and money on improving it. But you can do what you like, apparently.”

He added: “It’s supposed to be a nice place, I bought a house here to raise my children in a nice area and now we’re having to leave.

"We all had to leave in the middle of the night. We had to take the kids out and carry them over the broken glass. My eldest daughter is really terrified, she’s six and the other two are five.”

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CCTV was installed after last month’s attack but despite the culprits being caught on camera, police officers told the father they cannot be identified because they were wearing hoods.

He said: “The police don’t care, they haven’t even taken the video footage.”

The man said a female police officer was checking social media on her phone while at the scene in the early hours of Sunday.

He added: “There’s been an awful lot of this going on round the area. What’s next, will they burn the house down or throw acid on the kids? I have to think of the safety of my children.”

There have been several reports of chemical attacks on cars in Sheffield in recent months. In April, another vehicle parked on Montrose Road was damaged with acid. It had been parked there because the owners had a skip on their drive.

Sergeant James Marshall from South Yorkshire Police said: “We are aware of these incidents and investigations are underway, led by local neighbourhood officers in the Montrose Road area.“I can absolutely understand the distress that these incidents have caused the victim and his family and I would like to reassure him that our enquiries are ongoing to identify those responsible.“We have already reviewed CCTV of previous incidents, but unfortunately this has not lead to the identification of the offenders at this time. I would urge anyone in the area to please review their own CCTV cameras and send us any footage which may be useful to our investigation.“The investigation is now being led by a dedicated officer from the victim's local neighbourhood team, who will be reviewing all information received so far.“If you have any information that may assist with our enquiries call 101 quoting crime reference number 14/136106/20."