Police are appealing for witnesses after a string of vehicle thefts at businesses along the same road.

In the past four weeks, three motorbikes have been reported stolen from companies in Sir Thomas Longley Road on Strood's Medway City Estate.

The most recent theft was on Tuesday when one was stolen in a matter of seconds from a car park at around 7.45pm*.

The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had only bought it in the past few weeks.

He lives in Bobbing and says the M2 Junction 5 closure at Stockbury meant he was losing too much time in traffic driving to and from work.

So he bought the £4,000 motorbike.

He passed his test last Friday, got the bike insured on Saturday, had it taxed on Sunday, and drove it to work for the first time on Monday.

By the time he came to leave work on Tuesday, close to 10pm, his bike was gone.

He said: "There's nothing quite as sad as a man with a motorbike helmet and leathers on, standing in a car park alone with no motorbike."

CCTV shows the thief wearing a black hoodie, black jogging bottoms, and white trainers as he walks towards the vehicle.

He snapped the steering wheel lock and within moments was away.

The owner called the police as soon as he noticed his bike was missing at 9.58pm then spent roughly 90 minutes on hold across three separate phone calls attempting to get through to 101.

Eventually he was able to report it via its messaging service.

He said: "If they wanted it and it was behind a garage door, they would have gotten past the garage door."

After reporting this to police, he reached out to other businesses on the estate to see if anyone had CCTV footage.

He found a nearby firm also had a motorbike stolen from its car park four weeks earlier – but this time, it was during the day – directly outside their office window.

Matthew Smithers, who works as technical support at IPS International Ltd, said his colleague's bike had been stolen last month.

CCTV showed it being taken in just 22 seconds. The thief ran across the car park, snapped the steering wheel lock, and ran off with the £3.5k bike.

Matthew said the owner had only had it for two weeks, and it was stolen on the first day she had even driven it to work.

He said: "We called the police but because it's something that happens quite regularly for them, it didn't seem like they were going to do much.

"The owner of the bike even found the name and social media profile of the person we believe did it, and she went and found them with the motorbike, and gave everything to the police.

"But they said that because the thief's face was covered in the CCTV, there's no proof it's him."

He added that two weeks later, thieves came back to IPS and attempted to steal another bike.

He continued: "Luckily, our general manager saw them and went out and scared them off. But the same day, a motorbike was stolen from another business down the road so they must have tried their luck somewhere else."

It is understood the theft in question occurred on the premises of a scaffolding company.

In terms of the latest incident, a police spokesman said: "We are investigating a report of the theft of an orange and white KTM Duke 125 motorcycle.

"Officers are appealing to anybody with information to call police on 01634 792209, quoting reference 18-1499. You can also call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or complete the online form on their website."

*The time on the CCTV is wrong – it was taken around 7.45pm.