Sheffield Wednesday: Fan calls for South Yorkshire Police to act over cars raided during games

Derek Allgood’s family returned to their car, parked on Herries Road, following Sheffield Wednesday’s game against Cambridge United on January 2, 2023, to find it had been broken into and a number of Christmas presents had been stolen. Their case was one of a handful of “criminal damage” reports from the area filed by South Yorkshire Police that day, though Derek said chat amongst the Owls community suggested there could have been around a dozen incidents, with another dozen more the Monday before (December 29, 2022).

He said: “I know the police are busy and this isn’t a dig at them but what they said to me was ‘I don’t want to sound patronising but you really shouldn’t be leaving stuff in the back of your car’. Deep down we know we’re never going to get the stuff back.”

When approached about the incidents, South Yorkshire Police said: “On Monday, January 2, we received numerous reports that vehicles had been damaged in and around the Herries Road and Penrith Road areas of Sheffield. It is understood that in some cases, items were taken from the vehicles, which were parked on the road. In all cases, the vehicles were damaged by persons unknown.”

Derek said some of the things taken from their car included gifts of extreme sentimental value to his son, Max.

He said: “My mum passed away from Covid two years ago and not long ago we managed to finally get into her loft and sell some of the things up there. We had a bit of money between us and my sister took Max to Manchester and bought him these trainers from my mum as a present from her.”

The trainers, along with other gifts Max had received were all taken from the car as well as some of Derek’s sunglasses. He said: “Our car has blacked out windows and you can’t see in it. They have done both our front and back windows because they had to smash the front ones to see in in the first place.

"If I had known on Thursday that there were 10 cars broken into on that section of road there is no way I would have parked there. Some people are saying the next time they go they won’t go to the match, they will wait in their car with a baseball bat and that is what it will come to.

“Surely they can spare officers there for a couple of hours to monitor it. Even a community officer would deter somebody from breaking in. I certainly won’t be parking there again and I know many others won’t as well.”

South Yorkshire Police added: “Local officers have advised that on match days, officers patrol the area around the ground and the wider community and recommend anyone travelling to the match by car to park in approved car parks where there is security or cameras on site, which can act as a deterrent for individuals looking to commit this type of crime.”