Man arrested after intruder seen entering walk-in fridge at Telford food waste project at 3am

Police officers were called to NotJust Surplus Project's unit on Halesfield in the early hours of Monday (May 26), after owner Lea Beven was woken by an alert from the company's CCTV system.

The system, which had been installed recently, had notified the business owner that someone had entered the yard at around 3am.

As Lea made a call to the police, she watched on as the male opened the door to the external walk-in fridge and shut the door behind him.

"I thought initially he'd locked himself in," Lea said. "He was still in there when the police arrived, but he eventually came out after about 15 minutes."

West Mercia Police confirmed officers had been called to Halesfield 20 at around 3am on Monday, following a report of a person breaking into an external walk-in fridge.

A spokesperson for the force said: "A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of theft. He has been released on bail while enquiries continue."

Lea said she had been on high alert after the company experienced around three weeks of thefts from the Halesfield site.

NotJust, formerly the Food Share Project, collects surplus food from around the country and distributes it to other organisations, those in need locally, or sells it to the public to fund operations.

Lea said: "It's really sad that anyone would steal from us, if someone is in need of food they could just phone us and we would take them in.

"But some people feel like they can't follow the systems, that it's intimidating or embarrassing to ask for help."