Thieves cause thousands of pounds of damage - but steal just £2.70

Family-run Whitehouse Brothers Butchers opened its branch on Greyfriars Place in Stafford a month ago. The firm spent three and a half months preparing to move into a new unit and spent thousands of pounds on new, state-of-the-art technology.

Yet in a just a couple of minutes on Saturday morning vandals smashed through a window and threw tills on the floor, wrecking them. They were obviously unaware the only money in the registers was loose change. They were caught on CCTV now in the hands of the police.

Andy Whitehouse, 48, who runs the firm with brother Steven, 56, said of the thieves: "They ran straight back out, they were in there ten, 15 seconds. They caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to the door and they went through the till drawers. We found out early Saturday morning.

"Police were there in two and a half minutes. The response of the police was brilliant.

"There was £2.70 in change in the till. All we do is leave the coppers. I would have loved to have seen their faces when they opened the till drawers. I would have rather said: 'here's £50 for you, here's £50 for you' rather than go through all this."

The brothers employ about 120 staff at their butchers in Stafford, Cannock, Burntwood, Rugeley and Hednesford.

And Mr Whitehouse added: "We have only been open for a month and it cost me an arm and a leg. We have got state of the art, supermarket spec stuff. I have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on opening this."

"I am trying to build what I am building for me and my staff. But I feel let down by the two. You try to improve the area and have a nice butchers, do it nicely and a very good job of it and two clowns come in and wreck it."

Staffordshire Police said officers were called at 2.23am on Monday to reports of intruders breaking into the building. Officers were told the building was being boarded up at 3am. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police on 101 and quote log number 82 of November 19.