Men in hoods ransacked a petrol station shop, wrenching open a till and filling bags with piles of cigarettes, shocking CCTV footage shows.
The CCTV footage also shows one of the men carrying concrete blocks towards the shop just before the break-in, which managing director Mark James said they used to tear the shop's metal shutter and smash its glass front, before climbing inside. The incident at James & Jenkins Garages in Cardiff's Llandaff North at 4.20am on Wednesday March 2.
The video shows the men smashing the till with a stone and trying to open it.. After wrenching one side up and finding nothing inside, the footage shows them tearing open a cabinet and stripping it of cigarettes. It also shows them stuffing the packets into bags, before making a swift a get-away. Police say the incident is currently under investigation.
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Mr James said between £4,000 and £5,000 worth of cigarettes were stolen during the four minutes the men were inside the shop. He also described the "mess and mayhem" they left behind, with shelving damaged and goods strewn over the premises.
At the time of the alleged burglary, a neighbour had reported that the shop's alarm was going off and the police attended the scene immediately. Mr James found out about the burglary himself after a member of staff came into work at 7am and called him.
He said he spent most of the morning clearing up with the help of his dad: "We weren't able to open until about 3pm in the afternoon [on Wednesday]. The replacement glass is going to take two weeks to come, so the shop will be boarded up until then."
Mr James said it isn't the first time the business, which has been running for about 40 years, has been broken into, but he said that such an incident hadn't happened for over five years.
" Because it is a family business and a lot of the staff have been here for a long time - especially the one who discovered [the burglary] - they take it personally," said Mr James.
"It's local community shop and the staff treat it as their own - they feel a bit violated and obviously a little bit disturbed. Fortunately no one was in the shop when it happened. It's upsetting that that sort of level of violence - or whatever word you want to use - is present around us. When it’s put right on your doorsteps like that, it’s scary."
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: "South Wales Police was called at around 4.30am yesterday morning, Wednesday March 2, following reports of a commercial burglary at the Texaco garage on Station Road, Llandaff North. The incident is currently under investigation."
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the police by one of the following means quoting 2200070117. Go to: https://bit.ly/SWPProvideInfo. Send a private message on Facebook/Twitter or via email: SWP101@south-wales.police.uk
You can also phone 101
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