VICTIMS of vandals who targeted more than 10 TV aerials in the same street praised the company which came to the rescue.

Ten families in Waterloo Road, Clitheroe woke on Monday morning to find vandals had cut through their external TV aerials during the night.

Mum-of-three Emily Patten, 28, was one of the victims and had been alerted to the situation by her neighbour.

She said: “It may not sound like much, but losing your television is a real problem for families with kids who don’t have the money to have it fixed, it’s a lot of unnecessary stress.”

To try and solve the issue the residents called the police and took to Facebook to see if a local company could help sort the issue.

Accrington Aerials and Security saw the appeal and offered their help to fix the damage.

Bosses at the firm in Blackburn Road, Accrington said its engineers had intended to spend the morning completing a stock take but instead replaced the cables free of charge.

Company owner Clive Barnes, 41, said of his decision not to charge the families: “It’s not fair when things like this happen. I know the area, they’re mostly young single mothers.

“We are a family run business and we like to give back where we can.”

The engineers even managed to have the repairs, which Mr Barnes would usually charge £54 per property, completed before midday.

Ms Patten said: “It was so lovely of them, they took two hours out of their working day.

“I just want to give them a massive thank you for what they did for those10 families, most of which had young children.”

A police spokesman said: “We can confirm that a number of houses in Clitheroe have had their TV aerial cables cut with what appears to be cable clippers.

“The investigation is currently being handled by the neighbourhood team.

“Anyone with any information is urged to call 101 quoting reference 0193JN12.”