Brave woman jumps in boot of her Golf GTI as thief makes off with it in Buckshaw Village

The shocking events unfolded on Monday lunchtime, with owner Helen Pye and her partner David Goulding trying bravely to stop the 2018 motor being driven off from their home in Buckshaw Village.

In a horrible twist of fate, the theft happened just minutes after David received bad medical news.

The 39-year-old said: "Unfortunately I'd had some bad news in a letter and was inside the house, upset, and Helen was outside on the drive hoovering out the boot with our new puppy.

"I heard screaming, it was absolutely horrendous.”

David didn’t know if the screams were in relation to the puppy, but they were actually Helen’s attempts to stop her pride-and-joy hot hatch being stolen by a “scruffy-looking” tracksuit-wearing stranger who claimed to be lost on the cul-de-sac.

“You’re going to have to run over me”

The lab worker said: “As he walked past me he did look a bit shifty, he didn’t really look like he belonged around here, and also this is a cul-de-sac, so would know our neighbours.

"As he walked past the car I thought to myself 'the keys are in it’, and he looked and saw that the keys were in the ignition, and I knew that he was thinking of stealing the car."

As the man made a grab of the driver’s door handle, Helen dropped her puppy and ran to the front of the car.

She said: “I was almost tryng to say ‘you’ve going to have to run over me’, but at that point, I thought he will just drive over me.

"He went to lock the doors, but I knew the boot was open and he couldn’t lock that, and I went round to the back of the boot, jumped in. I thought I’d scare him to get out.

Hanging on by the headrests

Helen had to hang on by the headrests as the thief started accelerating and sharply braking to dislodge Helen, shouting at her to “Get out of the car”.

Knowing that her safety was in perilous danger, Helen begged for him to stop and let her out, and she managed to fall to the ground on her knees as he momentarily complied.

Hearing Helen's screams, David ran outside without any shoes on, and sprinted after the car.

He said: "All I could see was the car speeding off and Helen in the boot.

"I was terrified for her, you hear about people being killed in these situations."

Ran in front of a HGV

David said: "To get away you basically have to drive past our house again on the main road - it's separated by a grass verge, so I cut through the bushes, through a drainage ditch and into the main road infront of all the cars and a HGV which slammed its brakes on.

"I ran in front of it and the car kind of drove at me and then around me.”

The car headed off in the direction of Euxton Lane and has not been located since.

David can't drive and the car was the couple's only mode of transport.

“I’ll never get a nice car again”

Two years ago they also had a high-powered Golf R stolen from their home when thieves broke in for the keys.

Helen said: “I’m angry, really, really angry, after this being the second car we’ve had stolen.

"We do like our nice cars with a bit of an engine in them. I came back in the house and I’ve been crying and saying I’ll never get a nice car again.”

She says she’s been re-living the events every night, trying to think what she would do differently, or what would have happened if the thief had been armed.,

David said: "I've thought about it a million times since - about how wrong it could have gone. I've not slept much since.

"Helen keeps saying that she should have done this, or should have done that, but in the moment all the adrenaline is going.

"Now Helen's saying she's not going to get anything nice again.

"But you work hard and you should be able to have nice things without the fear that someone is going to come along and take them from you."

"Just walk away”

He added: "You just don't expect this in the middle of the day, when the owner is with the car. The police have said they can't believe it either.

"Buckshaw Village is a nice place too - but perhaps that's the problem - it's a nice place with lots of nice cars, and we're right next to the M6 and M61.

"My advice to people is to be wary and not to leave your car unattended, but if this does happen to you, then just walk away from the car, don’t even try to stop them.”

Description

The thief has been described as mid to late 20s with fair hair and a goatee beard, around 5ft 10, “scruffy looking”, dressed in a tracksuit and a hoodie, witht he hood up.

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