Mum shocked to find car smashed up in BRI staff car park

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, had just been in A&E for nine hours with her young daughter when she discovered what had happened, at around 3am on Tuesday morning. 

As these pictures show, the vehicle was filled with broken glass. The entertainment system had also been taken and the glovebox wrecked. 

Smashed glass spread around the car (Image: Newsquest)

"I felt terrible," she said.

"I had been in A&E for nine hours with my baby daughter. I was worried about her and then I was in shock when I saw this had happened.

"I was really scared going up there (in the first place). I have heard so many things about thefts happening in that car park and I never thought it would happen to me. 

"It was just really frightening."

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which includes the BRI, said it is doing all it can to deal with car crime on their grounds.

A spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear of this incident. 

“The Trust takes all car crime seriously and we work closely with West Yorkshire Police to ensure we are doing all we can to minimise car crime within our grounds and car parks, such as ensuring all car parking areas are well-lit and covered by CCTV and that we have frequent security car and foot patrols as well as patrols by our onsite Police Community Support Officers. 

The theft happened earlier this week (Image: UGC)

“The Trust also achieves the standards of the safer parking scheme and is granted the ‘Safer Parking Award’ for a number of the larger car parks.

"The Park Mark® Safer Parking Scheme is a Police Crime Prevention Initiative (Police-CPI) and is aimed at reducing both crime and the fear of crime in parking facilities.

The entertainment system in the car was also taken (Image: UGC)

“Staff is also kept informed by regular internal email, newsletters and security awareness days of any potential risks, i.e. that Volkswagen (VW) Group integrated sat-nav systems are being stolen from cars in West Yorkshire and nationally; namely Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda vehicles are being targeted predominantly. 

“As a result, they are advised to make their vehicle as secure as possible; we recommend using security locks/devices.”

West Yorkshire Police confirmed they had taken a report for the theft from a motor vehicle on November 15 at the car park on Duckworth lane.