Ludlow traders launch 'shopwatch' scheme after latest burglaries
A new "shopwatch" scheme has been launched by traders in Ludlow – following yet more burglaries in the town.
Ludlow Pantry delicatessen and Expensive Mistakes dress agency were both the victims of a burglars between Thursday night and yesterday morning.
The crimes have revived concerns for Ludlow's independent traders after such break-ins seemed to have stopped following arrests after a string of town centre thefts in Ludlow in the latter half 2015.
Tish Dockerty, secretary of Ludlow Chamber of Commerce, said traders were looking to create a network to share information and lookout for each other, in a similar scheme to the many town's Pubwatch initiatives.
Carmel Wilson, owner at Expensive Mistakes, said it was good to see such community action.
She said thieves had entered Ludlow Pantry, which is a smaller town-centre satellite of Ludlow Food Centre on the outskirts of town, by breaking into a window at the rear on Market Street, next to her shop.
The thieves took a small amount of "float" money left in the till at Ludlow Pantry before ripping out a nearby CCTV camera, she said.
"Then they tried to get into my building and realised there was a CCTV camera on the first floor of the stairs as you come up to me, so just ripped it out."
However they failed to get into the shop itself, she said, and in another act of traders looking out for each other a member of staff at Chang Thai restaurant witnessed the thieves, caught a brief video of them on his mobile phone and called the police, she said.
Tish Dockerty said as soon as Carmel informed her she sent an email around all her town centre contacts.
She said some kind of "shopwatch" scheme had been suggested at both a crime prevention meeting organised by Philip Dunne MP after the burglaries at the end of last year and just a week ago at a traders meeting.
"This has prompted me to do that," she said, "It would be good to get this up and running.
"At the moment I am just emailing people, but some have said they can't access emails at work so would like to be telephoned in the case of an emergency, so it's a matter of getting a chain of people to call each other in place," she said.
Anyone who witnessed anything or had any information is asked to Call police on 101. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org
