A family have described their 'nightmare' after a dad was confronted by two men armed with bats during an attempted carjacking.
David Rakotoson, 34, was visiting Blackpool over the bank holiday weekend with his wife, sister and baby daughter to enjoy when the terrifying incident occurred. He had parked the family car by at Sandcastle Waterpark by the South Promenade and paid £8 for 12 hours parking, Lancs Live reports.
In the early evening, mum Agata asked David to return to their car to fetch her a jacket. As he arrived, he saw two men in the car park and thought nothing of it. He then headed back to his wife who told him he'd picked up the wrong thing, so he headed back to the car park again.
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At around 6pm, he said he encountered two men using a jack in an attempt to steal from his vehicle. David confronted the pair, while recording the incident on his phone. They were captured swinging bats at him before driving off in their own car. After reporting the incident to the police, David claims he was told there was 'nothing' that could be done about the damage.
David, from London, told LancsLive: "We came to Blackpool from London just for a day's visit. We wanted to go to Sandcastle Waterpark, so we parked up, had a good time, then my wife wanted to go to a restaurant so we went to one opposite the carpark.
"She asked me to go and pick something out from the car. So I quickly ran up to the car and I noticed two men taking some equipment out from a car right next to mine, I just ignored it. I didn't know that was a thing, so I just walked past, they looked at me, I quickly took my stuff from the car and went back to my wife.
"She told me I'd got the wrong stuff - she'd wanted a puffa jacket - so I run back to my car and then I saw my car propped up on the car jack. Two people were working on my car."
David ran up to the men and asked them what they were doing to his vehicle. He added: "They quickly got the equipment out and started swinging the bars at me... I got out my phone and started recording them, they kept swinging the bar at me. Then they got into the car and drove off."
David reported the incident to the police and says he understands earlier reports had been made after somebody witnessed a similar incident from the same carpark.
"I called the police myself and they got to the scene quite quickly, they said from the very beginning there is nothing they can do. When I asked them the question are they still looking for them (the men), they said no," David says.
"About five minutes after the policewoman came along and I asked him to look at the cameras. There were two cameras looking up at my car, the policewoman said she would look at the CCTV but then she came back and said she can't use the footage, which I don't understand because there is literally hundreds of cameras on the carpark, at the entry point, at the exit point. It's just hard to believe that there is nothing they can't do."
David, his wife, his sister and his baby daughter waited for four hours for in the "freezing cold" for an insurance vehicle to arrive and take them home. He added: "It was freezing cold and raining and we had to stand out in the street for four hours waiting for my insurance company to get back to me so we had transport back down to London.
"There wasn't any hotels we could book into, they were all booked up with it being a bank holiday weekend, all the restaurants were closed so we just had to stand outside in the rain waiting for help to arrive. It was a nightmare and there was obviously there were drunk people walking up and down the street, that was the last thing I wanted was to get into the night."
Lancashire Police said: "We were called at around 18:00 on Saturday 30 April to a report of an attempted theft from a motor vehicle. We believe two suspects have attempted to steal the catalytic converter from the victims vehicle, but were unsuccessful and left the scene. Enquiries are ongoing and we would ask anyone with information that might help us with our investigation to contact 101 quoting log 1166 of 30 April."
