Thief crashes three cars

A thief crashed three cars, attacked a woman driver and beat a man in the street, police say.

The events began when the offender dragged a 46-year-old woman from her car in a pub car park in Cranleigh, Surrey.

The car later crashed in a street near Rudgwick, West Sussex, where he tried to get into a house.

The man was confronted by the owner and ran off, but he attacked a 67-year-old man putting a bin outside his home, leaving him with fractures to his face, before stealing his Rover car.

'Extremely noticeable'

As he drove the vehicle he veered across to the wrong side of the road and crashed it, a police spokesman said.

The thief then smashed the window of a house a quarter of a mile away and stole keys for a Peugeot 206.

He crashed the car on a bend after driving over a humped back bridge and again fled the scene.

Detective Constable Lin Stilwell said: "This man would have been extremely noticeable and I would appeal to anyone who may have seen him running through Rudgwick, or trying to hitch a lift along the A281 Horsham to Guildford Road, to contact me."

The man has been described as white and aged about 25 with short black hair and wearing dark clothing.