Pigeon fancier's misery after prize birds stolen

Trevor Green has even gone to the extreme of alarming his pigeon loft and putting a six-foot fence around the allotment site off Church View in Agbrigg.

But even that has failed to deter the thieves who broke in and stole another 12 birds on Sunday evening.

More than 150 birds worth around £3,750 have now been taken during recent raids.

He said: “I’ve put sensors up and they send an alert to my phone, and it went off at 6.55pm on Sunday, the earliest it’s happened. By the time anyone got there they had gone.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s been six times now in just over two-and-a-half months and it’s devastating.

“They even took the alarm and threw it away into the next allotment, it’s just mindless.”

Mr Green, 76, says up until recently he had never had any problems.

Other pigeon keepers on the site are also being systematically targeted for their birds and they are at a loss on how to protect their premises.

Mr Green said: “Even with the alarm and fence, they are still determined to get in.

“They are coming over the top of the fence and pulling the bottom of the aviary out or the bottom of the doors.

“I just don’t know what to do now, I’ve had birds all my life and I’m too old to start moving them now.

“I go every day to look after them and I’m hoping I do not have to give them up, I wouldn’t be able to just get rid of them.”