A Newport restaurant boss has reacted angrily after the premises was targeted by vandalism three times within a few days.
Gianluca Pandolfi and Massimo Intriglia co-run Mamma Lina's Italian restaurant in Rogerstone, Newport. The owners came to the restaurant on Wednesday morning to discover a number of its outdoor plant holders had been broken, its door vandalised and some of its plants stolen.
Pictures show damaged plant holders and pots and the tag "Bute Sq mony gang [sic]" scribbled on the front door.
Mr Pandolfi said: "The damage happened at around 3am on Wednesday morning, where a man appeared to turn up on a bike and started trashing the front of the restaurant for absolutely no apparent reason.
"An hour later someone came back and stole plants from the front of the restaurant. Thankfully, the glass at the entrance steps was not smashed."
The owners called the incidents "mindless, petty, ridiculous vandalism" and "totally unnecessarily."
Mamma Lina's has been running for more than six years in Rogerstone, and recently announced it would be reopening its Cardiff restaurant on Tuesday May 18.
It follows another incident last Sunday at around 10am, when footage captured a man stealing plants and trying to access the restaurant.
"This person was putting plants into their backpack and tried the doors of the restaurant. They also went around the back."
The restaurant has CCTV of the incident and has reported it to police. Officers are due to visit the restaurant this week to investigate.
Mr Pandolfi said the incidents were coming at an already difficult time for the business, which cannot reopen until May 17 as it has no outdoor seating.
"What we can't understand is why do it? It is a time when restaurants are already struggling so badly, and we now have to go to the trouble of replacing and fixing everything which was damaged.
"The reopening of outdoor hospitality has almost multiplied the difficulties as there is less demand for home deliveries due to some businesses now being open.
"We are having to just get by and make the best of a bad situation."
However, it said the community response had been "absolutely amazing."
One local has even offered to rebuild the plant holders free of charge.
"Their support has been so amazing, as it has been throughout the pandemic. It has been so important for a small, family-run restaurant," they added.
A spokesperson for Gwent Police said: "We received a call reporting graffiti and criminal damage at Mamma Lina's restaurant in Rogerstone.
"The graffiti was left on Sunday 2 May and overnight May 4-5. Plants were stolen and plant pots were damaged.
"Anyone with information relating to these incidents is asked to call 101 quoting log 146 05/05/21."
