Police are investigating a burglary which happened at Contact Pets on Deeside Industrial Estate, Flintshire, last week (Thursday, October 8).It's the second time the Contact Pets mini-chain has been targeted after thieves made off with £15,000 of stock in July from their Blacon premises.
Three men, thought to be aged in their 20s, prised open a bolted fire escape to get in before ransacking the premises and making off with £100 cash and a broken laptop.
Owner Dave Clark, who runs the store with partner Sarah, says the crooks went straight for the money.
He said: “They opened the till and got around £100, £80 of which was in change.
“They also went upstairs and made a right mess and took a laptop with a broken screen.”
Contact Pets, which opened last November, is home to exotic reptiles including fish, snakes and lizards.
Dave added: “The only product they tried to take was an aquarium but the handle on the box broke so they just left it behind.
“They didn’t touch anything else.”
CCTV shows the trio inside the property for around four minutes, with Dave and Sarah arriving four minutes after that.
Dave said: “I saw the bin was by the fire escape door so I used the car to push the bin in front of the door, hoping I’d trap them inside if they were still there.
“We rang the police and they came straight away but the thieves had already got out.”
Sarah said: “We were absolute wrecks yesterday after the break in. We’d only just started to recover from what happened in Blacon.
“It took a long time to replenish the stock that was taken and of course we lost business because of it.
“We don’t know if it’s the same people this time or someone else but we think they were local and they were definitely professional.”
Anyone with any information is asked to contact North Wales Police on 101 with the reference number RC15154600 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Pictured: One of the men tries to cover his face in the CCTV footage.
