COPS have confessed they can’t catch yobs terrorising an estate because they escape on speedy e-bikes.
One officer told locals in Clydebank that he was “embarrassed” at not having dirt bikes to chase down the 40mph two-wheelers.
It comes after we told how residents in the town’s Whitecrook fled their homes in pyjamas after a a van loaded with fireworks was allegedly torched — sending hundreds of rockets into the night sky.
The community PC told a meeting: “We don’t have any trail bikes, it’s a Glasgow resource.
“I’m a big advocate for bikes — it’s embarrassing.”
As tensions in the scheme have reached boiling point, West Dunbartonshire Council has launched its own patrols.
One local fumed: “The youngsters were running crazy, grabbing all the bins and setting them on fire.
“I went out to confront them but they were off on these mopeds.
“They get a buzz from a chase from the police, who are powerless to catch them.”
Another resident said yobs are trashing a local nursery “every night”.
David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation said: “This is typical of policing at the moment.
“Unless the service receives the funding it needs it’s only going to get worse.”
An onlooker told how kids were “screaming in sheer terror” after a van went up in flames sending fireworks flying overhead in the town in the early hours in February.
Nearby homes were evacuated amid a series of deafening bangs as firefighters fought to control the blaze which broke out around 1am.
No one was injured during the drama.
Connor Steele, 29, from Clydebank, appeared in Dumbarton Sheriff Court days later accused of wilful fireraising, behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and resisting arrest.
He made no plea to the three charges and was remanded in custody pending a further appearance.
