Telford raids leave catering firm in deep crisis
A Telford catering business has been pushed to the brink after suffering two burglaries in the past month.
Shorty's Catering has been hit with two burglaries, with a thief taking a laptop, a biker's safety jacket and money, leaving the business struggling to pay the rent.
A couple who run the business are now appealing for help from the public to try and track down the thief who has attacked their business, using a crowbar to break in.
Anthony Shorter, who runs Shorty's Catering in Stafford Park 17 with his wife Sarah, said: "We are only a small company this has hit us hard."
Mr Shorter, 44, said the couple had built the company up from nothing four years ago, buying an old van, renovating it themselves and setting up shop in Stafford Park.
From there they have been able to get their own unit, a larger van and expand their business to do buffets and catering.
Their business was first broken in to on October 19. The thief smashed the window and took their laptop and two iPhones that Mr Shorter had been fixing – but were unable to get access to the safe.
Mr Shorter said: "We got here at 7am on the Monday morning and Sarah said, 'What's that hanging out of the window?'
"As soon as she said that I knew we had been broken into because that window doesn't open. I knew the laptop was gone."
After that, the pair added new CCTV cameras, but they were broken into yet again on Monday, when the thief returned with a crowbar and broke his way into the shop, taking money from the safe, a replacement laptop that they had bought and a motorbike jacket belonging to the couple's 16-year-old son Robert.
Mr Shorter said: "He was absolutely mortified when he realised his jacket had gone because it was the present he had for his birthday; that was all he asked for."
The couple, who live in St George's, have another son, David, 16, and a daughter Amy, 19.
Mrs Shorter said: "It has got to the stage now where we can't sleep. At quarter to 12 last night we were back here checking the place because we're so paranoid. I couldn't watch the CCTV after the break in, it was heartbreaking."
The couple are now asking if anyone recognises the man from the CCTV images to contact police in a bid to get him caught.
