Jenni Turner, 34, left her Ford Fiesta car parked on her drive while she took her five-year-old son George for a walk at around 5.30pm on Sunday, September 26.

When she returned home at around 6.30pm, a black car “sped” past her – going "unusually quickly" for what is a small, residential road.

Jenni, who uses her car to get to her work as a childminder, noticed there was petrol pouring from the bottom of her car and then saw that two holes had been drilled into her petrol tank.

• READ MORE: Live updates on petrol stations and fuel in south London

She told the News Shopper: “I think when we got home George on his bike had disturbed them because there were three men and when we approached, the getaway driver just sped round the corner.

“I’d never usually think to look at my car but I did and all I saw was petrol coming out of the bottom.

“Two holes had been drilled into my petrol tank and when we looked at my neighbour’s CCTV, we saw there had been a bucket put under my car to take the petrol.

The Fire Brigade filled in the holes to stop more petrol coming out

“I had even tried to park right next to my garage so people couldn’t take it.”

Jenni had filled her car up with a full tank of petrol just the day before, spending more than £50 on the fuel.

She worries that she had been followed ever since.

Jenni explained: “I could have been followed but I was also out for about four hours during the day when my house was empty so that would have been a better opportunity, so maybe it wasn’t that.

“The fire brigade thought it would just be chancers, but also there was a man who was clearing the garage in the house next to us the day before.

“He jokingly asked me if I’d managed to get petrol and I was bragging that I’d just topped up.

Mum Jenni works as a childminder and uses her car to get to work

“He then joked to his friends about it and it might have been nothing but now I’m just thinking of all the people I’ve told that I managed to get petrol”.

Jenni has been forced to make an insurance claim to rectify the damage, with the whole job costing more than £800.

She has had no option but to pay the excess of this herself as she “needs” her car for work.

Jenni said: “I don’t know how much petrol they got but my tank was on empty because the rest had all spilled out.

“The firefighters put what looks like two big pieces of chewing gum into the holes to hold the rest before my car is properly fixed.

The Fire Brigade surrounded Jenni's car with sand due to the petrol which had leaked on the floor

“My family have had to help me out with taking me to-and-from work in the meantime.”

Jenni said that the firefighters told her they had been attending to similar incidents “all day” and that their engine was full of bags of sand to put down onto petrol on the floor.

She also said that her friend who works for the police had been inundated with radio messages about fights at petrol stations.

Jenni added: “Just be aware and move your car.

“Put them under cameras, or anything you can do, because people managed to do this to me in broad daylight.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “On Sunday, 26 September at 18:48hrs police were called to a report of petrol being taken from a car at a residential property in Bexley.

“Following an assessment of available evidence, it was determined that there was no realistic prospect of identifying a suspect.

“The victim has been informed and the case has now been closed.

“Should further evidential opportunities come to light this decision may be reviewed.”

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