By CASEY NEILL
LOCK up your … shoes?
It’s not something you hear every day, but a Springvale South man is warning people to do just that.
Ayhan Topal said thieves had taken shoes from his front doorstep twice in the past two months.
“On the first occasion they took my wife and my daughter’s. They were Vans,” he said.
“My wife’s were only a day old, too.”
Two weeks ago, his wife heard noises outside about 5.30am, investigated and saw “six or seven young kids” near the light pole outside their property.
“Our front sensor light went on and she went outside to have a look,” Mr Topal said.
“A kid was coming up the driveway.”
He told Mr Topal’s wife he was looking for his friend Sam and wanted to know if he lived there.
“My wife said ‘There’s no Sam here, I know what you’re here for, you’re here to steal shoes’,” he said.
The boy left, but shoes went missing from their doorstep a few days later.
“Most of the time we put them in, but sometimes if you’re in a rush you leave them outside,” he said.
Mr Topal said he hadn’t reported it to police because he figured “they have more important things to do”.
“It’s just a matter of them being around at the right time, catching them with a bag with shoes in them,” he said.
Springvale Senior Sergeant Alan Dew said he was not aware of any shoe theft issue.
“Particularly if you’ve got popular brands, please take them inside,” he said.
