“Expensive” alcohol, cigarettes and around £1,000 in cash have been stolen in an early morning break-in at a Perth shop.
Day-Today on Dunkeld Road, Muirton was broken into at around 4.40am on Friday.
Owner Usman Ali Sultan received a phone call to tell him that his shop had been plundered and that the front door window had been smashed completely.
Mr Sultan, 43, told The Courier that this is the worst incident to have taken place at the Perth shop in his 15 years as owner.
He said: “We didn’t get in the shop until about 10.30am.
“They took all of our top-shelf expensive alcohol and just emptied the cigarette cabinet.
“It’s happened three times before but this is the worst.
“As part of the council’s grand design for this area, they wanted all these shops to be the same so they didn’t want shutters on them.
Perth shop raided in early morning break-in
“The other shops don’t have what we have in terms of stock holding so they’re going to have to put shutters on.
“They took the till as well, which had maybe about £1,000 takings in it but the police recovered that.”
Usman said that the shop is a “community store” and a lot of locals have been left disappointed after the incident.
“We have a lot of locals and they’re all really disappointed.” Usman continued.
“We took over in 2009 so we’ve been here nearly 15 years so everybody knows us.
“We’re always trying to be proactive in terms of the community so we’re always out there trying to make sure our customers get what they want and helping the elderly.
“A lot of them have felt the impact as they couldn’t get in here in the morning – especially the workers.
“It’s a double blow because we couldn’t open up and then we lost trade.
“It’s Friday today and Rewind Festival is on so it’s a massive weekend for us and it’s started off like this.
“It’s been a really bad day and business is tough anyway. This is the last thing we need.
“I’m really disappointed, to be honest.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 4.40am on Friday, July 19, 2024, we received a report of a break-in at a shop premises in Dunkeld Road, Perth.
“Inquiries are ongoing.”
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