Raiders smash hole in supermarket wall - in second ATM heist this month
Thieves took a telescopic loader from a local farm and rammed the forks into the wall of a supermarket branch in Gloucestershire on Monday evening
Smash and grab raiders left a gaping hole in the side of a supermarket on Monday evening, after they tore out a cash point with a stolen digger.
The thieves took a telescopic loader from a local farm and rammed the forks into the wall of a Budgens branch in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, at 2am.
The gang ripped out the ATM in less than five minutes and loaded it into a white van, before fleeing the scene after setting fire to the digger – in what is the second attack of the month.
Police arrived on the scene to find the supermarket wall demolished from the ground to the top, with only a mound of rubble to show where the cashpoint had been.
A police spokesman said: "Police were called after a yellow 'Caterpillar' telescopic loader was seen on fire outside a store on High Street'
Budgens store manager, Jerry Tweney, said: ‘We don't know what they loaded the machine onto. It all happened really quickly, all within four or five minutes.'
The raid comes less than a fortnight after a near-identical heist 30 miles away in Malvern, Worcestershire.
There, thieves used another stolen telescopic loader to rip a cash point out of the side of a Marks & Spencer store at 2am on November 4.
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West Mercia police said they have arrested one suspect but are looking for more in relation to the incident in Malvern, and that the officers who are still hunting the crooks responsible for that raid are now liasing with their colleagues in Gloucestershire.
The supermarket opened for business the following morning as the damage only destroyed part of the customer toilets and staff canteen.