Thief on a bicycle digs up and steals plants from family's front garden in bizarre night raid

This is the bizarre moment a family caught a thief on CCTV digging up and stealing plants from their front garden.

Zulfiqar Ali, 44, and his wife Shahnaz Akhtar, 44, were baffled by the disappearance of new bedding plants outside their home in Bobbers Mill, Nottingham.

They decided to check CCTV - only to see a stranger pull up on a push bike and start digging at 9pm on June 18.

The stolen plants had been planted in front of the home by the couple's children Meerab, 10, and Aghnaa, eight.

A family from in Bobbers Mill, Nottingham, caught a thief on CCTV digging up and stealing plants from their front garden

In the footage, the man walks in to the front garden while carrying a bag and pushing his bike before resting it to the side of the drive.

The white man with short cropped hair, dressed in a hoodie, opens the bag as a car drives past on the street.

He walks towards the front of the house before bending down to scoop out the plants.

The man then puts the plants in his bag and cycles off into the night.

The man opens up a bag which he uses to transport the plants after digging them up from the front garden

Businessman Zulfiqar spoke to his neighbour about the theft, and was told one of their flower baskets had also been stolen on June 18.

He's asking neighbours to keep an eye out for the green-fingered thief.

Zulfiqar said: 'We bought this house in early 2019 and most of the plants have been there since then, but the stolen flower plants were only planted a couple of months ago.

'I was going out in the morning to fetch something and noticed a chunk of plants missing from the planter located right next to our doorstep.

The stolen plants had been planted in front of the home by the Zulfiqar Ali's, 44, and his wife Shahnaz Akhtar's, 44, children Meerab, 10, and Aghnaa, eight

'I looked around and found one whole pot empty so we played back the CCTV recording to see what had happened.

'It was quite strange - why would someone steal £2 worth of plants? My wife and I felt shocked and our children Meerab and Aghnaa felt angry.

'We live on a busy main road so we printed and pasted photos from the CCTV footage on our windows for four days to let all the neighbourhood know about it.

'By now, a lot of people living near us are probably aware of it and we have also put 'CCTV in Operation' stickers on our windows as well just as a deterrent.

'Of course it has annoyed us but in no way are we going to stop putting plants in our front garden.'