A FED up Horsforth man has struck on an ingenious way of stopping Yorkshire Stone thieves in their tracks.

After eight garden walls in Cragg Avenue were targeted by determined crooks in just four months, Don Vick decided enough was enough.

Wary that the thieves might be dangerous if challenged, he keeps watch and if they appear - he steps outside and blasts on a very loud whistle.

"People are frightened to go out to them on their own, but if they hear the whistle we all come out in a big group and catch them at it," said Mr Vick.

In the last four months the at least 60-year-old wall along one side of the avenue has been devastated by the thieves who arrive at night and load up five or six coping stones.

And they return night after night, stripping the whole road of coping stone.

Mr Vick took action after spotting two men loading stone into a hatchback car on Tuesday night last week.

"When I saw them, I blew my whistle, they heard me and went away. They couldn't see me and must have wondered what was going on," he said.

He believes the men returned the next night in a failed attempt to remove coping stone from the house directly opposite his.

Some of the walls border Leeds City Council owned houses and traditional coping stones have been replaced with white concrete slabs.

"It just looks awful. Where the coping stones haven't been replaced the walls are falling down and are quite dangerous, and the council are putting back cheap white stones, it's just a real mess," said Mr Vick.

Mr Vick, who has lived in Cragg Avenue for 13 years, said whereas children used to walk along the wall they are now in danger of falling and hurting themselves on loose stone.

Some of the road's older residents are also concerned about what will happen if they go away on holiday.

"The whole area is now dangerous for kids, it's just so distressing for people," he said.

Mr Vick is now looking at supplying all the residents along Cragg Avenue with a loud whistle and is also planning to set up a neighbourhood watch group. He also wants to put out a leaflet warning people about what is happening.

Peter Krushniak, Neighbourhood Watch Liaison Officer at Weetwood Police Station, praised Mr Vick's actions. "I think it's an excellent idea, anything like this that gets the community together is good. The good thing about this is its harmless," he said.

Mr Krushniak added another way of protecting the stone was to mark the underneath of the slabs with paint.