Pair sought after tools worth thousands taken
ACOUPLE are appealing for information about the theft of equipment worth thousands of pounds.
Laura and Garry Sampson’s van was broken into in Banks in the early hours of Saturday, February 2.
Mr Sampson, 46, woke at about 8am and looked out of his window to find one of van doors open.
Mrs Sampson, 37, director of Tarleton Roofing & Windows, said: “He looked further out of the window and he could see the back door of his van was also not fully closed.”
The couple went outside and were greeted by their neighbours, who had noticed the sliding door of the van was also open.
The lock on the driver’s door had also been broken.
Mrs Sampson said: “Our hearts sank. Garry could see all his power tools were missing.
“I immediately rang the police.”
CCTV images from the property revealed two people at the scene at around 1.08am, one breaking into the van.
The thieves were there for about eight and a half minutes.
The CCTV images are unclear and the thieves are yet to be identified.
Mrs Sampson said: “It’s sickening. It will take time to rebuild a whole working collection.
“We’ll have to do things gradually; these are expensive power tools that have been built up over many years of trading.”
The owners have since added additional security lights to the front of the property and fitted dead locks to the van.
Police have been provided with the serial number of every item taken, which includes thousands of pounds worth of Bosch Professional, Makita and Stihl tools.
Mrs Sampson took to social media to widen their search.
She said of the response: “We’ve been absolutely overwhelmed, the post has been shared by thousands of people from multiple different sources and it’s been so nice to see the general public are supportive.”
The couple are now offering a £500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
Mrs Sampson added: “We hope that by putting a reward out there that we might encourage somebody.”