Mansfield Park break-in caught on camera as victim complains about police response

A crafty thief stalked a family before breaking into a Mansfield Park home on the weekend – an incident captured on CCTV. See the video of how he staked out the house.

An opportunistic thief was captured on film watching as a Mansfield Park family left their home, before breaking in.

Victim Ishfaq Ali has expressed serious concern over how police handled the incident after he waited more than four hours for a response – which he said he eventually gained by chasing down a patrol car.

Just after 3pm on Saturday Mr Ali left his home to take his son, Farhaan, 10, to soccer practice at nearby Pennington.

Prior to leaving the home, Farhaan was waiting on the front lawn while the suspect was captured on CCTV cameras riding past on his bike.

When Mr Ali left the home, a few minutes passed before the same man on the bicycle was seen approaching the home and looking through the windows.

He proceeded to make his way through the side gate, before using a brick to smash a door to break-in.

A Mansfield Park break-in was captured on CCTV.

A Mansfield Park break-in was captured on CCTV.

The man stole at least five phones, sunglasses, and a $3000 bike.

Mr Ishfaq did not realise the suspect also stole his motorcycle keys, and the thieves returned on Tuesday evening, stealing the motorbike.

The victim said his wife Nahid returned home around 4pm and noticed the damage, and Mr Isfaq called police straight away to report the incident.

“He used a brick to break the laundry sliding, he ransacked the whole house,” Mr Ishfaq said.

He said police had told him it was better to preserve the crime scene and not enter until they had run forensic tests on the evidence left behind by the break-in on Saturday.

The suspect threw a brick at a glass door to gain entry at Mansfield Park.

The whole break-in was captured on CCTV.

But after calling back a number of times and having no police response at 8.30pm – about four hours after first reporting the break-in – Mr Ishfaq became impatient.

“I said it’s been 4½ hours, I'm sitting in my car and my wife and kids are at the neighbours’, do you have at least some idea of when they will come?” he said to police.

During a walk shortly after he noticed a patrol vehicle nearby his home.

“What I saw was there was a police patrol car … and I ran behind the car and they stopped because they saw me running,” he said.

“The officer said ‘is there a problem?’ I said ‘yes, it’s been 4½ hours and I’ve been sitting waiting for you guys’.”

Police attended his home to examine the scene.

“What I’m really sad about is the way police handled it,” he said.

“This time I’m really upset with the police more than my loss because this is not how you treat someone.”

No arrests have been made.

An SA Police spokesman confirmed the second theft occurred about 2.30am Wednesday, September 14, when thieves stole Mr Ishfaq’s 2018 red Honda motorcycle from his driveway.

“Police are investigating links between the break-in on Saturday and the motorcycle theft overnight,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman said the break-in report was reported at 4pm Saturday.

“SAPOL triages patrol taskings based on information provided by or extracted from callers,” he said.

“A caller reporting an armed person would require a faster response time to, say, someone coming home to find their house had been broken into.”