Caught on CCTV: Brazen burglar walks along street trying cars and front doors - before getting lucky and snatching a handbag, wallet and phone from unlocked house and fleeing in homeowners' car

Lewis Evan Wood, 24, caught on camera trying his luck in a Cardiff street

Snatched a handbag, wallet and mobile phone as the homeowners slept

Fled in the homeowners' green Ford C Max car - which he later flipped

Wood, from Cardiff, is now behind bars for three years and eight months



A brazen b urglar was captured on CCTV trying car doors and attempting to walk into houses in a Cardiff street.



Moments later Lewis Evan Wood got lucky when he walked through the front door of an unlocked home and snatched a handbag, wallet and mobile phone as the owners slept.



The 24-year-old then fled in the homeowners’ green Ford C Max car - which he later flipped during a 70mph police chase after being spotted at the wheel of the stolen vehicle.

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A brazen burglar was captured on CCTV trying car doors and attempting to walk into houses in a Cardiff street. Lewis Evan Wood walked through the front door of an unlocked home and snatched a handbag, wallet and mobile phone as the owners slept

Wood, from Rumney, Cardiff, is now behind bars for three years and eight months after being rescued from the car and later convicted of offences including burglary and dangerous driving.

Wood and an unidentified second man were picked up by a private surveillance camera as they strolled along the road in Roath in the early hours of the morning - oblivious to the fact their every step was being caught on film.



The pair even appear to openly urinate in the street as well as attempting to open car doors and wandering up garden pathways in the hunt for unlocked front doors.

Wood and an unidentified second man were picked up by a private surveillance camera as they strolled along Trafalgar Road in Roath in the early hours of the morning

They were oblivious to the fact their every step was being caught on film

Lewis Evan Wood enters a front garden during his nighttime raid Just minutes later Wood - wearing an unzipped hooded jacket over a white T-shirt and jeans - sauntered through an unlocked front door in a neighbouring road and netted a haul worth thousands before driving away in the stolen car after swiping the keys. Lewis Wood is now behind bars for three years and eight months Just 48 hours later, in the early hours of October 12 last year, officers spotted Wood at the wheel of the stolen car in Trowbridge and pursued him.

The chase - which saw Wood reach speeds of 70mph in a 30mph zone - ended

when the stolen Ford collided with an unattended parked car in Penrhyn Close in Rumney before striking a garden wall and flipping over and landing on its roof.

Wood was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, Heath, accompanied by police officers and arrested on suspicion of burglary, driving offences and being under the influence of drink or drugs.

The estimated total value of the stolen property and the damage caused by

Wood topped £6,000.

He later appeared at Cardiff Crown Court and was handed a 44-month jail term after he admitted burglary. Wood was also handed a concurrent 16-month prison term and a four-year driving ban after he pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, while he was given an additional concurrent 16-month jail term after admitting dangerous driving. He also pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol - which saw him given a concurrent three-month jail term - and using a vehicle without insurance, for which his licence was endorsed.

Wood was ordered to complete a fresh driving test once his period of disqualification has ended. Detective Chief Inspector Tony Brown from South Wales Police said: 'Members of the public don’t understand how brazen people are and opportunistic they are in trying to gain entry to unsecured premises.' South Wales Police figures show there were 1,359 burglaries recorded in Cardiff in the 2013/14 financial year - down from 1,594 the previous year. Wood - wearing an unzipped hooded jacket over a white T-shirt and jeans - walks along the street Just minutes later Wood sauntered through an unlocked front door in a neighbouring road and netted a haul worth thousands before driving away in the stolen car after swiping the keys

In 490 cases over the last year - more than a third of burglaries - properties were left unsecured in some way, which could include unlocked doors, windows or side gates.



Det Chief Insp Brown said: 'It does happen regularly unfortunately where people are very opportunistic. We know that people will just try doors.



'Whereas people may have a misconception that houses are staked out for some period of time that is not the case.