Police have blamed opportunistic criminals for a spate of thefts over the last few days during TT.

The force has appealed to visitors and the public to ensure their items are secure or locked away and says the island has a low level of crime generally.

But the TT fortnight has attracted the thieves who have taken advantage of busy crowds to target victims.

Earlier this week, young TT fan Carson Watson had his signed shirt stolen while it was draped round his shoulders while a box of hoodies were stolen from KTS Racing at the Paddock.

Even TT stars were not immune with legend John McGuinness having his leathers stolen which were thankfully returned by police.

Since then a TT visitor’s jacket was stolen from McDonald’s which has also been reunited with the owner the culprit dealt with and another leather jacket went missing while a fan was watching the racing  at Cronk Y Voddy which police now say may have been a genuine mistake.

A police spokesman said: ‘While it is important to remember that the island is very safe and thankfully has a very low level of crime generally, the Police have investigated a number of thefts over the Festival that are attributable to opportunist thieves.  ‘With this our advice is to ‘lock it or lose it’ and make it difficult for thieves by following taking some simple personal security measures.’

Reacting to the theft of their merchandise, the KTS Racing Team issued an appeal online, saying it was ‘a post we didn’t want to have to be writing, but unfortunately some low life has stolen a box of our merchandise.’

On Monday, Carson’s day Henry also posted an appeal on Facebook after his son had spent much of the day at the TT Grandstand getting top riders to scribble their signatures on his shirt only for someone to snatch it from him as he carried it around his shoulder.

He said: ‘My son is devastated, some people know how to spoil the TT, some low life has stolen this shirt from him, he spent the day yesterday getting signatures from the riders.’

Luckily for Carson, Northern Irish TT competitor Shaun Anderson stepped in to get the youngster a new shirt signed by many riders which he handed to the family earlier this week

Also on Monday, a pair of race leathers belonging to John McGuinness was stolen from the Isle of Man TT winner’s tent in the Grandstand area of Noble’s Park. The race leathers were those that McGuinness wore when he last won the Senior TT in 2015.

But in the early hours of today (Tuesday) police confirmed that the leathers had been found dumped at a nearby bus stop and were subsequently returned to McGuinness.