A SHOPKEEPER has asked ‘What else can I do?’ after raiders ripped a hole in the wall of his premises and stole items worth thousands of pounds.
Burglars wrenched almost two dozen Yorkshire stone bricks from the side of Gohar Superstores in Paddock in the early hours of Thursday.
The determined thieves then smashed a 3ft by 4ft hole through the foot-thick corrugated steel lined wall into the shop’s cold store.
They escaped with an estimated £5,000 haul, including cigarettes, cash, phone cards and chocolate.
Allahditta Gohar, owner of the Church Street store, said that after 16 years without a break-in, the outrageous smash-and-grab was the second raid on his store in 10 days.
“I can’t believe they broke the wall – it’s a proper solid outside wall made of stone,’’ he said.
“It’s a big job. I don’t know how long it took them.
“I can’t sleep because I’m too worried. If they can break a wall what else can you do, we can’t secure walls?”
The wall was fixed immediately but Mr Gohar, 47, said he was worried as had been hit by a similar break-in less than two-weeks ago and was convinced it was the same people.
He said: “They’ve tried to break the same place as last time but we blocked the window.
“They couldn’t get through the new wall so they came to the older wall.
“Both times they’ve gone for the cigarette gantry.
“We know last time there were two people as we got some CCTV footage.
“My neighbour told me the alarm went at 5.15am and she rang the police.
“They came straight away but they didn’t find anything.
“There’s CCTV on the flats behind and we’ve asked the police to look but we’ve heard nothing.”
Mr Gohar, who runs the store with his son Qamar and son-in-law Shazad, said he had already spent £1,000 on shutters but the two raids meant he was now considering forking out thousands more on security cameras.
He added: “If I cover all areas it will cost a couple of thousand but at the moment it’s very hard to afford.
“I’m struggling because there’s not enough stock and with these road works going on for over four months we’re losing business day-by-day.”
A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said detectives were appealing for witnesses.
She added: “Scenes of crime officers have attended to carry out forensic enquiries and CCTV is being checked.”
Anyone who has any information about the burglary is asked to contact Huddersfield CID on 0845 60 60 606 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
