Video of brutal assault led police to Amazon delivery van thieves

Two thieves stole an Amazon van full of packages a week before Christmas, then videotaped themselves bragging, “That guy just took the whole Amazon van, you know.”

Key evidence, brought forward as part of investigations into a brutal assault believed to have played a role in events leading up to the murder of innocent Elle Edwards, helped lead police to the pair. Jake Duffy, of Hornby Road, Walton, and William Duggan, of Broadfield Avenue, Beechwood, and an unknown man were spotted on Pennystone Close in Moreton on December 16, 2022, throwing parcels from the back of the Amazon van in panic.

The pair had stolen the parked van containing £3,793.50 worth of goods from Franklin Road that day and were in the process of loading the contents into a grey Ford Kuga, which had also been stolen from a house in Liverpool on December 6, the Echo reports.

The vehicle was found burning and without registration plates on Boundary Road, Birkenhead, on December 19, 2022. Police examination of the vehicle’s GPS revealed that the car had been driven in the Liverpool and Wirral areas between December 6 and 19.

At 1.30pm on December 16, shortly before the Amazon van was stolen, the car was parked outside a cafe in Wirral. CCTV from the store showed three men, two of whom were identified as Duggan and Duffy.

The car was then driven to the scene of the theft on Franklin Road and on to Pennystone Close, where the men, who at the time were wearing “masks or hoods”, were both seen. The car was also seen parked near Duggan’s home on Broadfield Avenue, Beechwood and Duffy’s former address on Arley Close.

The most incriminating evidence, however, was found on December 23, when Duffy and another man, Kieran Salkeld, were captured on a doorbell camera brutally beating a man named Sam Searson.

At the scene of the attack on Highfield Road, Rock Ferry, officers found an iPhone that Duffy had dropped and examined its contents.