A Carnoustie café was open for a business as usual on Friday, just hours after a late night break-in.
Staff of Gather Kitchen and Deli on Dundee Street had been working tirelessly to ensure customers were able to cross the threshold on Friday.
Owner, Bethany Bowles, was working alongside staff after thieves smashed their way in, breaking a window of the café and deli, shortly before midnight on Thursday.
Alcohol stolen
Police Scotland have now launched an investigation after a “quantity of alcohol” was stolen from the premises.
In spite of the disturbance, the business was able to reopen at 11am on Friday, an hour later than usual.
“It is a massive frustration that this has happened,” Bethany said.
“We are not sure how much has been stolen yet, as we still need to do a stock take but bottles of gin were among the items taken we believe.
“They’ve smashed a sizable window, which is around two-and-a-half meters tall, the glass was everywhere.
“We had to take all the items off the shelves to clean and also the kitchen area because of the volume of the glass.
“The object they used was obviously thrown with some force.
“A neighbour witnessed people fleeing the scene after they heard the commotion and the suspects were seen heading towards Balfour Place.
“The police bagged up the evidence in the early of this morning and took it away for analysis.”
Bethany said this was the first issue they’ve encountered since moving into the area in 2018.
‘Carnoustie has our back’
Despite the setback, dozens of messages of support have flooded in from the local community.
She added: “The messages of support we’ve had from customers in the business today and online has been incredible, Carnoustie has our back.
“It’s a massive frustration that this has happened, especially with everything else that has been ongoing with Covid.
“We’ll be going through our insurance regarding the window but it has been estimated at a value of £2,000 by Police Scotland.
“The best thing to come out of this is that we’ve carried on and got the place opened again.
“We’ve had a lot of customers popping in to make sure we are okay which has been nice, we certainly won’t be letting this get us down.
Investigation
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Around 11.50pm on Thursday June 24, 2021, police received a report of a break-in at a premises on Dundee Street in Carnoustie.
“A quantity of alcohol was stolen and inquiries are ongoing.
“Anyone who may have witnessed the incident or anyone with information should contact police via 101, quoting incident 3767 of June 24.”