A devastated Riverside baby shop owner has been left “heartbroken” after her business was targeted twice in one day.
The two incidents at the Stirling Pram Centre in the city’s Forth Street took place on Thursday and is a bitter pill to swallow as the shop was given the green light to open its doors next month following months of lockdown.
Shocked staff arrived at the shop early on Thursday morning to begin preparations for opening the store, only to discover graffiti daubed across the shop’s frontage.
The shop then vented its anger about the potential costs of clean-up on its Facebook page - with locals quick to share their frustrations.
However, that wasn’t to be the end of the drama as brazen thieves found their way into the premises around 3pm, making off with crucial shop equipment worth thousands of pounds.
Police are now probing both incidents in an effort to find those responsible, while the shop’s team of six staff attempt to pick up the pieces.
Owner Susan Allan, who has run the shop for seven years, told the Observer: “We came in on Thursday morning and there was quite bad graffiti just all over the walls and it looked disgraceful.
“We had to phone the police and that was really disappointing because we had just been given the news by the First Minister about being allowed to open up so it was heartbreaking to see all of the mess.
“I went to the doctors later in the day and came out to missed calls from one of the women that works in the office saying that someone had walked in and just stolen from the shop.
“The graffiti was hard enough because we’ve been mostly shut for a year on and off and we’ve worked really hard to keep the business afloat in that time and so it’s a real kick in the teeth to have something like this happen.
“The equipment itself will cost us around £1500 to replace and would have had no value to the people taking it and it’s just another thing that comes out of the small amount of funds we’ve got for re-opening things.”
Following the theft, Susan posted an update to her Facebook page and she has praised the good wishes of residents and businesses as they offer their assistance in getting back up and running once again.
Susan added: “We felt a bit invaded and unsafe and we’ve never felt like that before because we’ve been here for seven years and not had any trouble at all.
“People have been really kind after they found out what happened, we had some offering to help out financially if they could and [some] offering to come down and paint.
“The garage across the road also came in and checked up on us, so that reminds you that there are good people in the world.
“We’re going to have to pay an extra £500 to speed up getting the equipment replaced and we need it to take money in but the last laugh is on those who have done this because come hell or high water, we will make sure we are open again.”
A Police Scotland spokeswoman confirmed to the Observer that enquiries were ongoing over both incidents and that initial investigations remained at a “very early stage”.
