Masked gangs are continuing to terrorise shop owners in the same quiet village where £20,000 worth of Jellycat toys were stolen on the weekend.
The small village of Cheddar, Somerset, has come under siege by ram raiders who have targeted three separate shops in four attacks.
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of stock has been stolen, with the spree of raids beginning five weeks ago at Regatta Outdoors – which was targeted twice in just two days.
Then, thieves targeted Gorge Outdoors in late March, an outdoor clothing and equipment store. During the attack, thugs smashed through the property’s front door before ransacking more than £11,000 worth of items.
And now Elaine Moodie, owner of The Gorge Bear Company, is the latest ‘devastated’ resident in Cheddar after her store was ransacked by masked gangs early on March 30 in an attack which saw up to £20,000 worth of Jellycat toys nicked.
Video footage of the raid at around 4.40am showed the thieves ramming the door of the property with a vehicle before stuffing a heap of the fluffy toys into a bag and fleeing the scene.
‘We’ve worked so hard to build the business up to this level and to have someone come in and do that to us is just heart-wrenching,’ she told ITV.
‘We have no idea (where they’ve come from), we don’t think that they’re local but we do think they did their homework before the thefts.
Thieves were caught on CCTV cameras ramming a vehicle repeatedly into the The Gorge Bear Company (pictured) to steal Jellycat toys
The pair were seen stuffing hundreds of the toys from shelves into large bags before fleeing the scene
The George Bear Company lost more than 300 items in the theft after opening more than 25 years ago
Officers were called to the shop just minutes later and Avon and Somerset Police has launched an investigation
‘You don’t expect it in a beautiful place like Cheddar.’
The unnamed owner of The Gorge Outdoors said the raid has left him and his family ‘devastated’.
‘We’re a family company so it feels very personal,’ he told NeedToKnow.
‘The gang was ruthless inside, they did lots of damage and left lots of mess. It was the same entry method in both raids, but a different car and people.
‘It was pretty devastating for us emotionally.
‘Cheddar is definitely being targeted. It’s pretty unpopulated at night time so there’s less chance of disturbance.’
Shop owners in Cheddar are staying defiant amid the spate of thefts nevertheless.
Paul Pimlott, company secretary of The Gorge Bear Company, has vowed to carry on trading after his business was hit.
He said: ‘We had over 300 soft toys stolen in the raid.
‘We’ve been here since 1999 and nothing like this has happened before, but we’ve had lots of support from the community.
CCTV showed a masked gang ransacking The Gorge Outdoors (pictured), an outdoor clothing and equipment store
The suspects smashed through the front door before snatching more than £11,000 worth of items from hangers
One of the thieves is seen stuffing hundreds of the toys from shelves into large bags in a previous raid on the Gorge Bear Company (pictured)
‘But we’ve had lots of support from the community.
‘And we will continue. We also own World of Bears in Taunton and have staff to look after.
‘So as a local business we want to carry on contributing locally.’
It remains unknown whether any of the raids are linked, or whether the thefts were committed by the same gang of thieves.
Following the latest ransacking of The Gorge Bear Company Somerset and Avon Police said in a statement: ‘An investigation is underway into a burglary at a shop in Cheddar which happened in the early hours of Sunday 30 March.
‘We were called at 4.42am to a report that a car had been used to force access to the property in Queens Row with a significant quantity of soft toys having been stolen.
‘Officers were deployed within minutes of the call being made and a search of the area was carried out to try and locate the vehicle involved – a silver Renault Twingo.
‘The investigation is continuing and anyone with any information or footage that could help our enquiries is asked to call 101 and give the call handler the reference number 5225090991.’
