In the paper the other day, was a story of thieves who broke into a chippy and pinched, would you believe, sacks of spuds. And not a lot more. Of course, me being me I saw the funny side. Don’t mistake it for me being horrible about their predicament because that’s certainly not my intention.
But what on earth would you do with bags of potatoes that only cost £7.50 a bag! Obviously, they like chips, mashed potato, duchesse potato, home made crisps, fried potatoes and so it goes on, but you get the drift. It was at the Stargate fish and chip shop on Squires Gate Lane. Only when the poor owners turned up on Sunday to prepare for the day did they realise the door was unlocked.
Why Sacks of Spuds?
The strange thing was, the thieves took the bags of spuds. Strangely, they didn’t take the raffle jar or the glass with tips in it. Or the new £1,000 till – which would be worth something to somebody. They actually only took the last four remaining sacks of potatoes. Maybe they were getting withdrawal from a lack of spuds, well they might have.
The sacks weighed in at 55lbs each, so it wasn’t a lightweight that swiped them. Or maybe they brought a trolley to get them to their getaway car. If so it must have looked like a shot from the old black-and-white Keystone Cops!
Being Hercule Poirot minus the moustache, it seems that the owners think it was a competitor who took the last of their stock. Apparently anyone knows you can’t get new stock on Sunday, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out they were determined to stop them from opening on Monday!
The owner thinks that someone had been, as they say in films, ‘casing the joint’ and returned at night to do the dastardly deed. People can be so horrible can’t they, what a trick to stop a rival. But what else could it be? Burglars don’t usually take potatoes, or am I missing something.
Sacks of Spuds – and Cash
Anyway, they weren’t daft thieves. They might have missed the ncash but they saw the CCTV box on top of a freezer, connected to a flat screen TV on the wall. So they cut the wires to the TV and the CCTV box and took the hard drive with them. They weren’t half prepared weren’t they. Maybe they used to be in the boy scouts or something but they certainly weren’t amateurs.
As the owner said, they obviously knew where everything was in the shop. He thinks the burglars thought they paid the wages on Sunday, so guessed the money would be in the safe. The poor owner walked into a mess. She went to prepare for the next opening, put her key into the front door and found it was unlocked. What a shock she must have had!
Having been burgled when we lived in Yorkshire, I know how it feels to walk into the house and find someone has been in it. At first you can’t take in what’s happened. It doesn’t seem real that someone has been in your drawers, cupboards and all the rest. So I can really sympathise with her. It’s a horrible nasty feeling that stays with you for ages.
When she got inside, she noticed that the safe was missing, and the till drawers wide open. £1,190 had gone from the safe and £200 pounds from the till, along with £250 pounds worth of change. A £1,000 reward has been offered – without any luck so far.
Stocks in the Village Green
One thing is for sure, it’s awful the things that go on. Stabbings, murders, drugs and heaven only knows what – it’s time that these scumbags got a tougher sentence in court. It seems that you can rob to your hearts delight and just get a slap on the wrist. It’s almost like a green light to do what they want and it’s time it stopped.
If these people did it out of spite, they should be shown up publicly and made to apologise publicly. A modern day equivalent of the stocks in the village green! But that’s just my thoughts, they do what they want anyway.
I feel so sorry that it happened to decent people, willing to work hard and be honest and not prey on the public. I don’t like what I see about this new world we are allowing to be created, do you!!
While you’re here…
Have a look at the homepage of the Visit Fylde Coast website for more of the latest updates.
Love the Fylde Coast? Sign up for your weekly email newsletter. Packed full of interesting things it arrives in your inbox all 52 weeks of the year.
Join us on Facebook at our Visit Fylde Coast Facebook Group
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @visitFyldeCoast
