Store targeted by ram raiders

The store on High Street was targeted in the early hours of Monday morning by thieves who police believe used a mechanical digger and a flatbed truck to force their way into the shop.

They are believed to have taken an automatic cash machine from the building.

The shop had relocated from a site just a few yards away from its present location, which itself had been raided.

Misterton Parish Council chairman Hazel Brand said: "Relatively, there is not a great deal of crime in the village, but the Co-op, when it was in its old building was ram-raided a few years ago, so it is not the first time that it is has happened."

The old Co-op building is just a few yards away from the site which was raided yesterday and is now a one-stop shop for public services called the Misterton Centre - and it includes the village's Nottinghamshire Police office among its tenants.

Parish council deputy chairman Maurice Simmons said yesterday's raid had initially left pensioners worried because the Co-op is where many of them collect their pensions.

But the business had been able to continue despite the damage and the police investigation which followed the raid.

He said: "It was a surprise to everyone who uses the store - it's a popular shop. The shutters come down and there are steel bollards in front of it, but it seems as though they just knocked them down with the digger. It sounds pre-planned."

A Co-op spokesman described the raid as a major shock but said the shop had not closed at all and it was business as usual.

Repairs were being carried out to the building yesterday afternoon.

Nottinghamshire Police were today continuing with their inquiries, and are liaising with officers in neighbouring South Yorkshire.

Police are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the white flatbed truck or the digger, or have any information on the raid, to contact them on 0115 967 0999.