BRAZEN thieves have stolen ten valuable Yorkshire stone flags in two separate daylight raids on a terraced home, camouflaging their crime by wearing high-visibility vests and claiming to be on official work.

Priestley Terrace in Wibsey is a quiet cul-de-sac of century-old stone homes that back onto the open car park of Wibsey Methodist Church.

And the end-of-terrace home belonging to clerical accounts worker Adele Hartles was hit by stone thieves firstly on Wednesday when four slabs each worth more than £40 were prized from a path beside its wall.

"My partner was asleep at home as he works nights and was woken by the barking of our dogs at about 2pm in the afternoon.

"But by the time he got outside they'd gone with four big stone flags.

"Nobody saw anything and nothing was caught on CCTV," Miss Hartles said.

"I was furious as we'd had some taken back in December and other neighbours had lost flags around the same time.

"But then they came back on Friday afternoon and made off with the other six big slabs and left one propped up against the wall."

This time a neighbour said they'd spotted a red Transit van in the area.

"There was a red Transit van in the church car park back in December when I actually caught them at it one lunchtime.

A couple of men in their 20s to 30s lifting the stone and I shouted "What are you doing!" and they said they'd been paid to take away broken flags.

"They were wearing some hi-viz, perhaps to try and fool people.

"I called "I don't think you are!" and by that time they were jumping in the van and shot off.

"I couldn't get the van registration back then and I'd urge everyone to keep an eye out because I've seen on Facebook there's lots off stone theft in Bradford at the moment.

"We work hard, but we can't afford to replace all these stones and may have to concrete over the path.

"There are plenty of words for the people who are doing this, but none of them are printable," Miss Hartles said.

Stone thefts in Bradford have gone up by a third in a year and a police spokesman urged people to be vigilant and note descriptions of suspicious people and vehicles.

“Not all offences will take place during the hours of darkness, so please keep a look out for anything that may appear suspicious during the day too.

“It’s important that we protect our heritage in West Yorkshire and do all that we can to disrupt the activity of offenders,” he said.

Anyone with information on this or other stone thefts is asked to call the police on 101.