The Chocolate Bar and Sayers ransacked in late night burglary

The Chocolate Bar

The Chocolate Bar and Sayers, on Yorkshire Street in Rochdale Town Centre, were broken into last night (Wednesday 17 June).

The thieves are believed to have entered the premises through the back door after smashing their way through and then stole a number of items as well as “trashing” the properties.

From The Chocolate Bar items of high value have been stolen including the till, which was an iPad and spirits. From the office upstairs two iPads, two iPhones, Netbooks, a checking in system for Dale Con, a collection for Danny Jones and a safe with three night’s takings in was also taken.

The thieves then decided to trash the property and downstairs spilled the water and colouring from the slush machine all over the floor and smeared cake on the mirrors. Upstairs, photo frames were pulled off of the walls, vases were smashed and the office was made a complete mess.

Owner Martin Ballard said: “It’s not fair. You work hard up and down the country and something like this happens. It is happening far too often.

“We have had a really good couple of days so this is a disruption, but I won’t let it stop us.”

The thieves then made their way to Sayers next door, where the same method was used.

They smashed their way into the property and once inside stole items of high value and “ransacked” the property.

From Sayers, the thieves stole the staff's Christmas money and went through the lockers before making a mess.

The burglary is believed to have taken place sometime between 10pm on Wednesday 17 June and 7.30am on Thursday 18 June.

It is understood that a similar burglary happened before The Chocolate Bar opened in April, but the thieves could not enter the property, so moved on to The Health Food Centre next door.

Martin added: “The businesses and the police need to work together to stop this. Something is going on as it is happening too often. It is clearly the same people or a group of people who are talking to each other about when to do this.”

Despite wearing gloves throughout the burglary, it is understood that the police have a footprint that might help them track the thieves and that the hammer used to smash the door was also left behind.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “We haven’t made any arrests yet and there are no descriptions of the offenders. Our enquiries are still ongoing.”