Thieves have caused £5,000 worth of damage after ransacking a Fife charity shop in a series of overnight raids.
Police are hunting a gang who smashed their way into two units belonging to Barnardo’s in Dunfermline between 10.30pm on Sunday 18 and 8.30am on Monday.
After forcing their way in with a crowbar, the raiders targeted a jewellery cabinet before stealing £200 in cash which had been raised for the volunteers’ Christmas night out.
Investigators believe the charity shop raids are linked to another overnight break-in which took place at around 4.30am on Monday.
A three-man gang forced entry to the TanXpress salon in Rosyth but left empty handed before driving away southbound towards the Queensferry Crossing in a silver 4×4.
BLACK FRIDAY OFFER: Two years of unlimited access to The Courier Digital — at better than half price!
Barnardo’s shop manager Janice Welsh said: “They’ve smashed their way through an internal door that separates the front and the back of the shop and have left a huge hole in it.
“My safe, which is bolted to the floor, has also been damaged so that needs to be fixed too.
“They made their way into the children’s store next door through the fire door.
“This has obviously been an organised thing and they knew exactly what they were doing. They even took the time to take the back off the jewellery cabinet and removed just one £60 ring.
“What makes it even worse is that there was around £200 of money that had been collected for our volunteer’s Christmas night out and that’s been taken. It’s just such a shame because they work so hard and they were really looking forward to it.”
She said the damage would cost about £,5000 to put right.
“It’s just heartbreaking but we have had great support from the local community and we’re hoping to turn this from a negative into a positive somehow,” she added.
Funds raised by the charity will now have to be put towards repairing the damage unless an alternative source can be found.
One of the raiders was aged 16-20 and around 5ft 7in.
He was wearing grey skinny jeans, a black puffer style jacket and had a scarf over his face.
Detective Sergeant Christopher Dow said: “We would urge anyone who saw anything suspicious in this area or nearby in the Skylark Road and Carnegie Campus area overnight, or who may have captured any suspicious vehicles on private CCTV or dash cam footage, to come forward.
“We are treating these three incidents as linked and officers are carrying out inquiries to identify those responsible.
“We are committed to helping to keep business premises safe.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dunfermline CID on 101, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
