Stunned dad returns home to find his front lawn has gone

A dad was left stunned after returning home from a night away to find his front lawn had been stolen.

Danny Baks said something looked "off" when he got back to his property on Durham Road, in Darwen, earlier this month (October 1). But it was just moments later when he realised someone had helped themselves to the artificial grass in front of his property.

He was alerted to the theft when his daughter asked: "Where has the grass gone?"

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43-year-old Danny estimates the patch of lawn cost between £10 and £100. And after staging a mini-investigation of his own, he says he discovered a few other residents around Darwen have fallen victim to similar crimes, LancsLive reports.

"I came home on Sunday morning with my daughter and something just looked off," Danny told LancsLive. "The penny didn't even drop straight away.

"As I was unlocking the door, my daughter turned around to me and said, where has the grass gone? I was like what, where's that gone? You don't expect someone to take a bit of artificial grass."

The piece in question was a fairly large-scale size, measuring around 11ft x 5ft, fitting perfectly in the space that Danny has between his front door and garden wall. Danny added: "Obviously you don't want lose between £80-100, whatever it was. But it's not like a gold diamond ring or anything like that, so who would want to take that?"

Looking on local social media pages, Danny noted his neighbours and others in the immediate area have also had some of their items stolen, particularly things that have been kept