A COUPLE woke up to find that their flagstone garden path had been stolen.

Linda and Steve Clare, of Chorley Old Road, Horwich reported the theft to police on January 4.

Mrs Clare said the couple went to bed at around 11.30pm but it was only the following morning, at around 8am, that they realised the path had been stolen.

She added: “It was when my husband went out to go to work that he realised it had gone.

“We didn’t hear anything.

“They were very tidy as well.

“They were obviously used to doing it because they made no mess at all.”

The couple have 11 York Stone flags, five outside the front door and another six, which were stolen, on a sloped part of the garden which meets the front gate.

Mrs Clare added: “My husband came back in and said ‘you’re not going to believe this’.

“It is quite a surreal thing to happen.

“It is annoying because it is the expense and hassle of having to deal with replacing them.

“My husband couldn’t go to work the day it happened either so he lost a days work too. “

The couple said that their neighbour has had his York Stone path stolen twice in the past.

Mr Clare, a quantity surveyor, said: “I am just trying to make the pathway safe at the moment so no-one falls and see what we can replace the path with.

“I am going to move the other flags that they left for the time being and put something else down.

“It is ridiculous that we have to do this really.

“But I don’t know what we can do about it.

“It seems that there is a lack of a police presence in the area so people can get away with these things all the time, because there is no-one there to do anything about it.

“I understand the cuts and pressures the police are under though.”

A spokesman for police said enquiries are on-going.

York Stone, which is around £40 to £65 per square metre, has become more popular with thieves due to its value.

In December Lauren Nichols had her York Stone pathway, in Turton Road in Bromley Cross stolen.

A spate of thefts also took place at St Thomas the Apostle Church and St Paul’s Community Centre, in October.