Thieves snatch £6,500 motorbike outside Dagenham home

The CCTV shows two culprits making off with the Yamaha MT07 after using an angle grinder to cut through a chain fitted to the wheel at a house in Treswell Road at 10.42pm on October 27.

The pair can be seen lifting the bike into the back of a white Mercedes Sprinter van before making off.

Stephen Lee was sleeping at the time ahead of a 4am alarm call to get ready for work.

Daughter Donna was on holiday in Blackpool at the time but watched in horror as the crime unfolded via a hidden doorbell camera streamed live to her phone.

“It was just heartbreaking,” the keyworker said. “I was hundreds of miles away, absolutely in bits, powerless.

“I was just thinking, ‘I know my dad will be gutted’. He’s the most amazing dad. He’s worked his whole life. He has never complained. Never had fancy stuff. That [motorbike] was his pride and joy.”

As Donna watched she tried calling home to warn her dad, but it took a couple of attempts because Stephen was fast asleep.

Moments before the theft, one man had rung the doorbell, waited, then returned to the van while his two accomplices snatched the motorbike.

“It’s really disheartening,” Donna said. “But I’m glad my dad is safe. If he had answered the door, God knows what could have happened.

“[The thieves] could do this to anyone. And next time it could be worse if someone answers the door to them.

“I’m just appealing to people to not let this happen again,” she added.

Donna believes Stephen’s bike would have been dumped in a street as the thieves waited to see if it had a tracker.

She explained after going undetected by police for 24 hours they would have known it didn’t have one and gone back for it.

Donna described them as wearing trainers with illuminated trainers, dressed in padded jackets and aged in their 30s onwards. One was bald.

The bike’s registration is EF19 ZPX. Part of the van’s number plate is KN64.

A Met spokesperson said: “Officers continue to investigate. There have been no arrests.”