AN opportunist has been caught on camera in the middle of the night rifling through a parked car.

The CCTV footage shows the chancer walking onto the driveway of a property in Midland Road near Winton and getting into one of the vehicles.

He spends a couple of minutes searching the vehicle before leaving empty handed.

The owner of the car, Dan Hilmarsson, caught the footage on his CCTV camera, which is attached to the side of his house, around 3am on Monday, February 20.

Speaking to the Echo, he said: “This guy has absolutely no idea he is being filmed.

“It was probably lucky for him that he didn’t steal anything otherwise he would be getting arrested for theft.

“He was still quite cheeky though just walking onto our driveway and opening the door to our car and looking inside.”

According to Mr Hilmarsson he was able to get into the vehicle on the driveway because the “lock doesn’t always work properly”. He added: “As a result we take all our valuables out of the car so there was nothing for him to steal.

“Although that didn’t stop him having a good rifle around inside the car. And it wasn’t just us who were targeted. From speaking to some of the neighbours it seems that he went into nearly every drive on our road trying the handles on cars.”

Police have said they are investigating the incident as an attempted theft from a motor vehicle.

“We have received reports of a man trying car door handles in the Midland Road area,” said a Dorset Police spokesman.

“The local neighbourhood policing team are aware and are reminding people to ensure they take all valuables out of their vehicles at all times.”

Police are also offering crime prevention advice to residents when it comes to vehicle crime.

For more information go to dorset.police.uk/help-advice-crime-prevention/home-property-belongings/vehicle-crime-removeitlockit.

The CCTV footage has been removed at the request of the homeowner.