A man became stranded at Leeds Festival after thieves targeted his car, leaving him "thousands of pounds" out of pocket.
Connor Kipling, 26, was stranded there until 5am on Monday, August 29, after the authorities, his breakdown cover service and festival staff failed to help. Thieves stole the wheel bolts from his Audi FY while he and his friends enjoyed themselves in the festival arena. They attempted to leave at 11pm but the car wouldn't move, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Connor, who's from Merseyside, said: "I was meant to be dropping my friends off for the day and one of the lads decided he didn't want to come. It's not really my thing to be fair but it was one of the lads' birthdays so I ended up going on [the absent friend's] ticket.
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"We parked up at the weekend day car park, went to the festival, then went back to the car at about 11pm at night. It was pitch black. We couldn't find the car for hours. By the time we went to drive off the car wouldn't move.
"I could just hear the sound of the hubs spinning. So I got out and saw the car slouched on its wheels.
Connor's Audi at the festival car park, with the bolts removed from its wheels (Image: Connor Kipling)
"Someone had tried to remove them without a jack to lift it steal the wheels of the car. They'd taken all the bolts out.
"I'm into my cars a lot, I'm quite passionate about my car, so it's sort of like my pride and joy. It's an older Audi FY so it's quite a rare car of sorts and it's had a lot of nice bits done to it so it's a nice looking car- or was a nice looking car.
"I thought that it was a targeted attack and a malicious one too - I couldn't understand why anyone would try and do that. It looked like they just tried to rip the wheels off the car all at once - but all they've done is stop the car moving and caused thousands of quid worth of damage."
Connor claimed he then went to festival staff and the police who both told him they were too busy ushering the festival's last day crowds out of the site, with the police telling him to call 111. He called his breakdown cover service, who arrived on the scene but said they couldn't help as it was an issue for his insurance.
Connor added: "My breakdown service wouldn't touch it because they were saying that it would end up having to go through insurance as it would do serious damage to move it. Insurance say the exact same thing though, that I'll have to speak to the breakdown service - no one wants to touch it now without wheels on.
Connor's Audi at the festival car park, with the bolts removed from its wheels (Image: Connor Kipling)
"They're not able to put it on the recovery dolly because they'll end up ripping the front bumper and rear bumper and damaging the whole of the undercarriage trying to drag it off with no wheels."
Connor finally made it back to Wirral later this morning after being picked up by his girlfriend. He said that he would have to return to the festival site, armed with the necessary bolts, to rescue his car - though has no idea what condition the vehicle is in after being left for hours already damaged.
Connor said he had driven for "100 miles" today trying to collect the necessary parts to bring his beloved car home. He said he was driving back down to Leeds today.
He said: "I went to one place in Merseyside, they had 10 bolts, but they were closing at 2pm. I've not stopped, I've done about 100 miles today. I've been over to Chester, Wallasey, Bebington, back to Bromborough then I've just been over to Neston to get jacks to try and jack the car up."
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