My mum has had her high street business, her self employed lifeline, broken into and plunged into chaos. The police have implied they may not pursue the criminal further and the criminal's parents are refusing to pay for the damages caused even though he was caught inside.

The front door has been kicked in, cracking the frame, jamming the lock, and shattering the glass. He has bent the iron works covering the door, forcing his way inside. He cut his hand, and has spread blood throughout the store, across stock, and into the carpets. He proceeded to kick and break the lock on the back door (which we'd just replaced a few weeks ago), he went upstairs spreading glass and blood and broke the lock on the window upstairs. The police were notified by someone staying in the hotel opposite that he'd been kicking the door for 20 minutes to get inside, and around 5am when they arrived they found him inside her shop. The best part is that instead of taking him to a police station, they took him home and let him go.

Full Video Walkthrough At The End

The police didn't tell us what had happened, we only found out from my mums brother opening my store opposite. The door was boarded up, and when we opened it we found absolute chaos.

My mum has lost a week of trading, of paying staff, has been given a bill of £300 for boarding up the door, has been told by her landlord that the carpet is beyond saving with cleaning due to the amount of glass embedded into it, that it needs replacing throughout the shop, is having to pay for a whole new door and door frame, replace the locks on both front and back door, replace the window lock upstairs and potentially write off up £10,000 worth of stock due to "needle like glass shards" and blood stains at the command of her insurance in the name of customer safety, before having to pay excess for stock insurance and excess for property damage.

At this point my mum has had to be closed for nearly a week, due to the insurance company, and due to the police deciding whether the CSI need to come or not. The police, who were wavering on evidence due to no CCTV inside, even though his blood is present throughout and the police caught him inside seem to think this isn't impactful enough.

The Resolution:

The criminals parents decided to come to the store with the police this morning to see the damage, to make things right and had told the police they were willing to pay the damages.

Today came, but they never turned up to see the damage, and the police have decided to give him a police community resolution, which is an informal outcome for anti-social behaviour, used as an alternative to formal criminal justice action. This falls lower than a caution and is an apology letter. The parents have now decided to no longer cover the damages.

I am now watching my mum stuck in limbo, not being able to afford to replace everything and cover the costs while the police think an apology is a fair recompense for someone causing tens of thousands worth of damage to someones livelihood. And the real kicker? This happens on the day of signing a new lease, meaning that her insurance may decide to not cover anything.

What We Need

I've put this fund together as it's the only thing I could think to do.

We're a self employed family, and our businesses are what keep us going. This has the potential to not just destroy my mums business, that has been a staple of our town for 20 years, but also ripple out into the rest of ours from having to divert funds to help her. All of this because one person decided her door was worth kicking through. The high street is already a challenging place to make a living without people smashing up your livelihood.

If you can donate anything to help, we'd hugely appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Harrison

Please see below a video to document the damage;

https://youtu.be/S5zitCT_TTc