Police are hunting a vandal who calls himself Robin Hood after he claims he struck a second time at a notorious car park.
Using boltcroppers he broke a heavy chain and squirted foam inside the ticket dispensing machine at Changegate car park in Haworth.
He alerted the Telegraph & Argus by e-mail to his attack on the site belonging to “Dick Turpin”, a reference to the car park owner Ted Evans.
Car Stoppers, which manages the car park, arrived on Tuesday morning to find the machine vandalised about ten days after a previous attack.
The car park has gained national notoriety for motorists being clamped – one of the high-profile victims was the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Betty Boothroyd.
The latest e-mail states: “Just to let you know that Robin Hood was on Dick Turpin’s turf AGAIN in very recent hours.
“The ‘mission’ proved a little harder than first imagined, as two very strong cuts had to be made, but sheer determination paid off, and the mission was accomplished. To be continued.”
In his first e-mail, sent about ten days ago, he calls for a petition to oust Mr Evans, who adopted the name Dick Turpin after he was branded such in a national survey about wheel-clamping businesses.
Mr Evans said: “After the first attack we chained and bolted the machine, so he must have had to use strong bolt-cutters. He is one disgruntled bloke who is taking revenge for being clamped, I think.
“But if he’d obeyed the rules about staying, then he wouldn’t have been clamped in the first place.
“I reported it to the police who are also investigating the first attack.”
Mr Evans suspects the culprit was actually clamped in the Black Bull car park in Haworth, which employs Car Stoppers to prevent people using the pub car park instead of the official car parks in the village.
“It’s unfortunate because it’s the public who suffer. We’ll be putting up the charge for an all-day stay on Saturday from £4 to £5 to pay for the repairs. We did that on the last occasion,” said Mr Evans.
Defending the clamping policy, he said there was no other way of ensuring people paid when using the car park because the configuration of the car park entrance prevented the installation of a barrier.
A Keighley police spokesman confirmed officers had been contacted about vandalism at Changegate car park. Anyone with information about the incidents should call (01274) 475331.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel