Spoiler book yob tears off the last page
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COP Samantha Woods’ life may have been saved by her protective body armour without a bullet being fired.
The 33-year-old found her left breast was aching every time she pulled the high-vis vest on.
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Pals persuaded her to have a medical check-up, which found that she was suffering from early-stage breast cancer.
Pc Woods, who is based in Normanton, West Yorks, has now had surgery to remove the tumour. A SPOILSPORT crook is trawling charity shops and libraries and tearing out the last pages of books.
The vandal, who has ruined dozens of books over the last three months, is being sought by police.
Demelza, a charity shop in Herne Bay, Kent, which raises money for terminally ill children, has been worst hit with 15 books a week attacked since Easter. Shop owner Nick Rogers said: “All the books are priced differently, but it could be £20 a week over three months. It does add up.”
The vandal tears pages horizontally and sometimes rips out the middle pages.
Mr Rogers added: “We initially had the odd book getting torn, which we dismissed as children playing a prank, but in the last few months we’ve been finding up to 15 a week. We can’t sell a book with one ripped page.” A spokesman for Herne Bay library said 20 books had been damaged.
He said: “We don’t consider 20 books to be an epidemic and not comparable to the situation at the Demelza charity shop.
“Staff are now being extra watchful to try to catch the person responsible.”