Dad returns from night away to find thieves have stolen his front lawn

Credit: MEN Media

A dad returned from a night away to find his front lawn had been stolen.

Danny Baks, 43, realised someone had taken the artificial grass from outside of his home after his daughter asked, "where has the grass gone?"

Mr Baks said something looked "off" when he got back to his property in Darwen, Lancashire, on 1 October. 

And, on closer inspection he released the patch of artificial lawn worth around £100 was missing.

Danny Baks was shocked to find thieves had stolen his plastic lawn Credit: MEN Media

Danny said: "I came home on Sunday morning with my daughter and something just looked off. The penny didn't even drop straight away."As I was unlocking the door, my daughter turned around to me and said, where has the grass gone? I was like what, where's what gone?"You don't expect someone to take a bit of artificial grass."

Danny decided to stage his own investigation into the missing turf which was fitted in the space between Danny's front door and garden wall.

He says he discovered a few other residents around Darwen have fallen victim to similar crimes.

Danny said: "Obviously you don't want lose between £80-100, whatever it was. But it's not like a gold diamond ring or anything like that, so who would want to take that?"Looking on social media, Danny noted his neighbours and others in the immediate area have also had some of their things stolen, particularly things that have been kept within easy reach in their gardens. 

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He says that one neighbour had a garden bench taken from the front of their house, and a number of people have had plant pots stolen too.Danny only moved into the property with his daughter at the beginning of April and installed the artificial grass towards the end of that month. 

Danny said: "It getting nicked doesn't really enter your head and it was quite heavy."The dad also stated that cameras will be going up outside his home, ensuring this kind of thing doesn't happen again. 

Danny added: "The repercussions from this though is I have my daughter full-time and she's 12. She's now frightened that they'll come back and try and get in the house."So she's scared of being at home on her own now. So that's had a knock-on effect with her."