HOURS OF THE MORNING IN FREEMAN STREET
SMASH ’N’ GRAB HAPPENED IN THE EARLY
A HEARTLESS thief stole a Guide Dogs for the Blind charity box from the counter of a Freeman Street cafe.
The smash and grab raid happened in the early hours of Wednesday at Linzi and Mick’s cafe where a front window was shattered.
The hungry thief also stole a bag of pork scratchings, a can of beer, chocolate concrete an iPad, a phone and cash from the till. Now Mick Brown is counting the cost of the damage and the haul of stolen items. The former Grenadier Guardsman who served in the Armed Forces for 15 year told your Grimsby Telegraph that despite the trauma of the raid, he is pleased the thief didn’t take the Poppy Appeal charity box. Luckily it had been replaced the day before. The new one has just started to fill up to replace the previous box which had over £200 in donations from generous customers. He said a customer had alerted him to the damage to the front window at around 8am on Wednesday.
“We rushed down and saw the gaping hole in the window and saw a light on in the kitchen. But it had happened in the early hours of the morning. He had taken the Guide Dogs box, one with a puppy statue on the top and a bag of pork scratchings. It is devastating when we have worked so hard to get established again after the pandemic,” he added.
“It is going to cost us at least £500 to replace the window. But we can’t understand why they only took certain things like a bag of pork scratchings. There was a box full next to it. There was a can of beer taken but there are loads of other beer bottles that were left. A piece of chocolate concrete was also taken. Maybe he was just hungry. I am just pleased the Poppy Appeal tin wasn’t taken. It is heartbreaking what has happened. But if that had been taken it would have been terrible.”
Mick said attempts had been made to kick in the door but it is fully secured by bolts.
He and Linzi Hallberg, who are in business partnership have invested in new security measures including CCTV and alarms following the raid. A total of £32 in cash was taken from the till. Linzi and Mick opened the cafe a year ago.
Linzi said: “When we got the call about the break-in I was expecting the worst and thought it had been trashed. But luckily it wasn’t and we have been able to stay open and look after our customers and continue with our delivery orders.” She added: “The customers have been brilliant and have supported us all day. They know how much we have invested in Freeman Street and how hard we have worked to start up the cafe.” Anyone with information about the raid can contact Humberside Police on 101, quoting incident number 16/98944/21 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.