The brazen Oldham thieves caught on camera in 2022

However, some thefts are more notable than others as bandits have been seen making off with inexpensive, broken and even sentimental items from residents' gardens, front door steps and businesses over the course of the past year.

From the brazen to the bizarre, here's a round-up of some of Oldham's not-so-seasoned professionals who were caught red-handed in 2022.

A garden was targeted by a thief for its LED lights (Image: Nazia Ali)

The lights looter

In the early hours of a summer Monday morning in June, CCTV footage showed a man stopping in front of a property in Hathershaw for 15 seconds.

The man is initially seen walking away before he returns again to grab three LED colourful garden lights.

The lights were concealed in a planted area of a residents' garden, valued at around £15 each.

The surveillance captures the man yoinking the lights out of the ground before racing off down the road with his "unique" loot.

The milk snatcher was seen picking up a bottle of milk from a resident's doorstep (Image: Simon Howard)

The milk snatcher

Over on Smallbrook Road in Shaw, video footage caught a 'milk snatcher' in action in the early hours of June 23.

At around 3am, a woman can be seen walking up to Simon Howard's home before taking off with his bottle of milk from his doorstep that had been delivered earlier that morning.

The footage on social media prompted outrage from neighbours and residents across the borough.

A man was seen falling off a ladder trying to steal several CCTV cameras at a garage (Image: David Jones)

The camera clamberer 

In this bizarre and "strange" case, one man was seen staggering around the perimeter of an MOT garage on Suthers Street, equipped with a ladder, to cut down and take off with its CCTV cameras.

The bungler took all five of the cameras from the exterior of the garage walls at around 11pm on November 27 - but it wasn't the easiest pilferage we've seen as the man was seen falling from the ladders several times.

He injured himself with such severity that he even left behind traces of blood at the scene.

Garage owner, David Jones, at least managed to find the funny side in the ordeal as he discovered the thief cut the wires in the wrong place, essentially rendering them useless and the whole escapade pointless.

A man was seen running down the street with a bench on his head (Image: Mandi Shearman)

The plaque plunderer

In perhaps an all-time low for some of Oldham's thievery, a family was left "heartbroken" after a bench they had put up in memory of a lost loved one was pinched - and returned smashed to pieces days later.

Aside from the extensive damage, the only thing the thief had taken was the engraved plaque.

The family, who live on Fitton Hill in Hathershaw, only enjoyed their memorial bench for six days in August before it was cruelly snatched from their front garden.

Surveillance cameras by neighbours on Wildbrook Crescent caught a man running through the streets with the bench over his head in broad daylight at around 7.20pm. 

The wreath thief took a string of neighbour's Christmas decorations (Image: Lynn Corless)

The wreath thief

While neighbours on Spring Lane in Lees slept soundly one night in December, Oldham's very own 'grinch' did the rounds by taking Christmas decorations and a handful of wreaths from a string of houses.

A trio of mums said they caught the wreath thief in action on Ring doorbell cameras at around 3am on November 29.

The footage shows the woman brazenly approaching one of the homes and promptly ripping down a wreath from the front door.

The victims pointed out the theft appeared premeditated as the woman came with a carrier bag to haul her festive loot in.