A thief stole a jet washer from a Fishponds garage which has endured a nightmarish two years.
The Palmer family brought the £250 device into their garage Autofix on Monday (June 7) because graffiti tags had been daubed across the site at the weekend.
The Rose Green Road building was then entered and the pressure washer stolen at about 6.50pm on Monday (June 7).
Police are appealing for information and are investigating.
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For the Palmer family, it is the latest in a series of misfortunes since their old site, at Speedwell's Strachan and Henshaw building, burned down in a huge fire which destroyed 50 businesses in May 2019.
Justine Palmer, who runs the garage with husband Mark and son Dean, said: "We lost everything, then we started again here, then we were hit by Covid, and now this. It is very frustrating.
"All I keep saying is 'when's it going to end?' It feels like literally one thing after another. Since the fire it's like someone is saying 'pack up shop and don't come back'.
White graffiti was sprayed across the front of the garage over the weekend.
Dean, 21, said: "It was a load of mess. I couldn't make any of it out to be fair. We brought the jet washer in to get rid of it.
"At about 6.50pm on Monday we were locking up the gates out the back. If the guy had come two minutes later, the washer would have been in the back of our van. We were getting ready to take it home.
"If we'd left it out in the car park it would be our own fault but it wasn't. It was in the building, at the front.
"The guy wouldn't have known, from standing in the road, that there was anything inside. He just ran in through the door and got lucky."
The washer had only been placed in that spot about 10 minutes earlier, added Dean, who called it "right place, right time" for the culprit.
He said: "We saw what happened on the CCTV camera so we went out in the car to have a little look but we couldn't see the washer."
CCTV footage has been passed to police.
The £250 washer had been bought as a Father's Day present for Dean's dad Mark last year.
Justine, 46, said the theft is the latest incident in a "very frustrating" period for the business, but the family are determined to keep going with Autofix.
"We haven't got a choice," she said. "At the end of the day it's me, my son and my husband. If we don't carry on we're all out of a job and we end up losing everything.
"If you let everything get you down, you'll never get out of bed. My son's the reason we kept going with the garage after the fire. We'd employed him straight from school and it's going to be his one day. We have to keep going for him."
An Avon and Somerset police spokesperson said: "“Police are investigating after a pressure washer was stolen on Rose Green Road, Fishponds at about 6.50pm on Monday 7 June.
“Anyone with information that could assist our inquiry is asked to call 101 quoting crime reference number 5221126325. Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
