The owner of a Dundee store that was raided at the weekend says his area of the city centre is “suffering”.
The incident took place at The Phone Shop in Murraygate on Saturday evening.
Three Samsung phones – including two A40 models – were among the items taken.
Manager Hammad Hussain said he was unsure how many people were involved.
He believes Murraygate could become a better and safer street if new stores replace the empty units.
A police probe has been launched.
Hammad, 38, said this was the second time the shop had been targeted in recent weeks.
He said: “Thankfully a friend was walking past the store on Saturday night at around 11.45pm.
“He phoned to ask if I was aware the door had been smashed.
“There was a previous break-in attempt on June 28 where the door frame was damaged – I assumed he was talking about that.
“He told me there was further damage to the door and there was glass everywhere.”
Call for Murraygate improvements after Dundee raid
Hammad rushed to the scene to establish what had been taken.
He added: “The person or persons involved obviously used a hammer to get in.
“It’s been a smash-and-grab raid.
“All the expensive phones are locked away but there were a few Samsung phones behind the counter.
“They’ve taken our HP office laptop and a few power charging packs.
“It was around £900 worth of goods.
“Given the time of night that we believe this happened I’m surprised there wasn’t any footfall – it was the weekend.
“From the time we closed at 6pm on Saturday police have been trawling the CCTV footage from the street.
“We’re aware of the other break-ins in the local area in recent months.
“This area of the city centre is suffering with antisocial issues and footfall at the moment.
“We’re hoping that more stores come to replace some of the empty units soon.
“Thankfully we have really good regular customers but some of the things happening outside on this street are scary.
“We’re looking at putting shutters on now as an additional deterrent.”
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Inquiries are ongoing after police received a report of a break-in at a shop in Murraygate.
“The incident was reported to police on Sunday August 25.
“However it’s believed the break-in occurred sometime on Saturday night.”
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