A DARTFORD home security specialist woke up one morning to find the tyres on his car had all been shredded – by a mischievous band of foxes.

Steve Wright, 29, could not believe what he saw when he checked the CCTV footage from a camera he installed outside his end of terrace home in Strickland Avenue.

In one three minute passage passed to News Shopper, which we’ve sped up for you below one of the furry beasts can clearly be seen circling the Renault Megane in the early hours of the morning on December 8.

As one emerges from underneath the car, another fox moves in again and again to tear at the tyres – appearing to back off only when startled by a hiss of air as its teeth pierce the rubber.

Steve says three foxes are visible on parts of the footage with one clear ring leader having a particular taste for his wheels which cost him £340 to replace.

News Shopper:

Steve lost all four of his tyres to the foxes. 

The father-of-one told News Shopper: "I had a look on the cameras expecting to see a fella with a knife or something but instead I saw three foxes going at the tyres.

"If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have believed it – you would just have put it down to vandalism.

"They are all around going right in there. The main one must have pierced it because it probably made a noise and he scarpered but then he came right back.

"You can see them at the wheels with their noses right in there going backwards and forwards circling the car for about 30 minutes.

"Fast forward it and you can see the car drop down as the air leaves all four tyres."

Steve had popped out to Darent Valley Hospital at around 1am with wife Sam, 28, and newborn baby daughter Freya who had a stomach complaint.

They returned at around 2am and it wasn’t until 11am that morning that Steve noticed the jagged gashes in the tyres of the family car parked next to his work van right by a bus stop.

He said: "I'm wondering whether someone has spilt something at the bus stop and it splashed onto the tyres. 

"The foxes were certainly intent on getting at something. 

"I’ll put it on the credit card and worry about it later but it is on my mind I’ve got this £340 to pay off with Christmas approaching.

"It seems every morning I head outside wondering whether it’s happened again.

"They are vicious little things really."

Three other foxy tales from News Shopper

July: Catford man Anthony Schofield was driven potty after being attacked by a fox which burst in on him as he sat on the toilet.

The 49-year-old claims he was quietly going about his business in the little boys’ room when the mangy creature strutted in before mauling him, his partner and his pet cat.

June: A pack of foxes caused more than £1,700 damage to a van during a repeated attack in Bexleyheath.

Father-of-two Toby Lewis feared he was a victim of metal thieves after wiring on his VW Transporter was targeted on consecutive nights.

November, 2012: A fox was mown down shortly after attacking teenage couple Kelly Lloyd and Jack Larkins, then both 18, while they waited for a bus in Blackfen.

The fox apparently went after the two teenagers at around 10.30pm on November 8 last year before refusing to move out of the way of a silver Land Rover which then ran it over.