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01
Sept
Harrogate shop owner's faith in police 'broken' following theft
The owner of a Harrogate antiques store says his faith in North Yorkshire Police is “broken” after the force failed to intervene as shoplifters made off with over £1,000 worth of goods.
Tim Ward, who co-owns 27 West Park, said the incident happened around lunchtime on Saturday (August 30).
He told the Stray Ferret:
My business partner, Lisa [Hawksworth], noticed that a bust of Jesus was missing from a table in the centre of the shop. Neither of us had sold it, so we had a look at the CCTV.
Looking through the footage, they soon found a man and woman who appeared to know what they were looking for.
Mr Ward said:
They went straight to some candlesticks, had a look at them, wandered around a bit, and then the woman picked up a statue of the Madonna and put in by the back door.
They helped themselves to about £400 worth of silver, and then the man reached up to a high shelf and took a pair of expensive candlesticks, and they left by the front entrance.
I think they may have been stealing to order, as all the items were religious: the bust of Jesus, the statue of the Madonna, and the ecclesiastical candlesticks.
They were here around 20-30 minutes. They didn’t look particularly suspicious – they were very cool about it – but when we looked at the footage, we could see that they were very careful. They took their chance when another male member of staff and I were helping take something to a customer’s car, and they watched Lisa very closely.
Mr Ward and colleagues were so quick to work out what had happened that the alleged culprits were still in the area when they called 999. Mr Ward saw them waiting for a bus to Leeds.
He said:
When I called the police, I asked if they would go after the bus and stop it, as it could only have got as far as Pannal by that time.
But I was told they would just put out an ‘observation’ for the man and woman, and I was asked to fill in a load of forms.
I thought we had them bang to rights – it should have been so easy to arrest them – but the police weren’t prepared to do anything other than put out an observation.
In future, we just won’t bother. Our faith in the police has been broken. They don’t walk the beat anymore, and when we call them to report a crime in progress, doing anything to stop it seems to be beyond them.
27 West Park was targeted by burglars, albeit unsuccessfully, in 2022, but Mr Ward said this was the first time the shop had been hit by shoplifters since before the covid pandemic hit.
In 2018, the business had more than £100,000 worth of gold, silver, platinum and diamonds stolen by thieves who cut a hole in the roof and descended into the shop on ropes. Mr Ward said no arrests were made in connection with that incident.
The Stray Ferret has contacted North Yorkshire Police about Saturday's incident.
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