Thieves strike at charity shop

HEARTLESS thieves broke into a charity shop and made off with hundreds of pounds.

The Cancer Research store on Stratford Road in Shirley was targeted during the night on March 11 and the manager, Rachel Taylor, believes they were singled out by professional criminals.

The thieves used power tools to break into the safe and stole the £700 which had been made during the weekend.

Mrs Taylor told the Observer: "They knew what they were doing, they are professional criminals. They made sure the alarms wouldn't go off and they targeted the safe, they left the collection tins behind."

Mrs Taylor realised something was wrong when she arrived for work at the shop and saw a big hole in the roof which the burglars had made to break in to the building.

She said: "I'm just shocked. We are a popular shop and we worked hard to raise that money.

"They have caused a lot of damage to the building and safe which will have to be repaired."

According to Mrs Taylor the break in comes just four months after the charity shop next door was burgled.

Sgt Carl Grinnell from the Shirley South neighbourhood team said: "This type of theft is particularly callous because it is a charity shop and ultimately the victims are cancer sufferers who benefit from the money raised by Cancer Research UK."

Police said they believe this is an isolated incident and they are not aware of any other thefts targeting charity shops.

Anyone with information about the incident can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

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