Leeds business tracks down stolen items using 'find my device' app after two burglaries in a week

Keely McBride said that she felt West Yorkshire Police were not responding to her requests for help sufficiently after she was able to locate the items stolen from her business – Face Perfect Clinic on Park Square North – using the “find my device” application.

She also said that other businesses in the nearby vicinity have been burgled in recent weeks and called on the police to do more to find and deter those responsible.

West Yorkshire Police has responded that it is looking at the burglaries at Face Perfect Clinic and has “increased their patrols” in the city centre due to the number of recent burglaries.

Ms McBride said that she attended her business – Face Perfect Clinic on Park Square North – last Monday (September 18) morning and found that it had been broken into and that two iPad Pros, an iPad and an amount of money had been stolen.

She said that she informed the police but that they didn’t pay a visit until the following day.

In the meantime she said she used an application to trace the items to a property in Hyde Park that she said was accommodation for vulnerable adults. She said: “I attended and got all of it back except for the money and the keyboards for the iPad Pros.”

She said she returned on Tuesday to find that she had been broken into again and that a desktop computer and iPhone were stolen. She said she was able to locate them again using the application but doesn’t feel that police have followed up the request to look into it sufficiently.

She said: “I’m absolutely fuming. I know where my stuff is but they don’t seem to want to act on it. It’s always me emailing them and chasing them up.”

She added that she knows of other businesses on the square and on nearby streets that have been targeted in recent weeks, adding: “I’m terrified they’re going to come back and break in again. I just feel that Park Square is being targeted.”

Chief Inspector Jonathan McNiff, of Leeds District Police, said: “Officers are currently following up lines of enquiry on these burglaries and have informed the victim of this.

“Enquiries are ongoing into other recent business burglaries in the city centre and arrests have been made in connection with some of these offences.

“Local officers have also increased their patrols of the area and reassurance work is ongoing.”