BROMSGROVE police are warning Fairfield residents to ensure their gardens are secure after thousands of pounds of property was stolen from sheds.

Gardening equipment and tools were among items worth more than £6,000, stolen by thieves from four sheds and a storage container at properties in Stourbridge Road.

Officers believe the thefts probably all took place overnight between Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24, although some of them were not discovered until a few days later.

The largest single haul, worth £3,280, came from a storage container on a field that can be accessed from the village hall's car park.

Equestrian equipment including two saddles and two bridles were stolen from it along with a generator, concrete mixer and some electrical fencing equipment.

The sheds were all in gardens backing onto a field and some of them had their door hinges unscrewed in order to break in.

Property stolen from them ranged from mowers and petrol driven hedge trimmers of various makes such as Stratton, Mountfield and Masport, to pressure washers and drills.

Two adult bicycles were also taken, a Specialized ‘Allez’ road model and a Cube racing bike.

Sergeant Louise Meeson said: “It’s likely the thieves turned up with a van and broke into the sheds and storage container all on the same night. We’d like to hear from anyone who might have seen a vehicle like that being driven on to the field at the back of Stourbridge Road, possibly via Wood Lane.

“A significant amount of property has been stolen so if anyone sees items of the nature described being sold either individually or together cheaply then we’d be interested in hearing about that.

“We would advise residents to take whatever precautions they can to boost their shed security, such as fitting alarms to them and considering defensive planting to make it more difficult for thieves to access gardens from open land as has happened in this case.”

Crime prevention advice is available at westmercia.police.uk.

Anyone with information about the shed burglaries is asked to call police on non-emergency number 101, quoting incident reference 75-S-240414.

Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.