Hundreds of Jellycats worth up to £20,000 have been stolen after a masked couple rammed a car into a shopfront before making off with a fortune of the highly-collectable toys.
The early morning ram raid, which took place at around 4.40am on Sunday, left The Gorge Bear Company in Cheddar’s frontage completely destroyed.
The thieves, who were caught on CCTV cameras ramming a vehicle repeatedly into the shop, smashed through the entrance and stole a large quantity of goods including the popular Jellycat toys.
At around 4.20am, security cameras caught a masked man and woman peering into the windows and using a torch to look at the stock inside.
Shortly afterwards they are seen returning in a Renault Twingo and pulling up outside the shop.
While one thief gets out and attempts – somewhat unsuccessfully – to set up a wooden plank system to force the door open, the other remains in the car and then repeatedly reverses into the shop door.
Footage shows it repeatedly ramming the door using a wooden post as a battering ram.
The pair are then seen stuffing hundreds of the toys from shelves into large bags before fleeing the scene.
The thieves, who were caught on CCTV cameras ramming a vehicle repeatedly into the shop, smashed through the entrance and stole a large quantity of goods including the popular Jellycat toys
The pair were seen stuffing hundreds of the toys from shelves into large bags before fleeing the scene
The George Bear Company lost more than 300 items in the theft after opening more than 25 years ago
Officers were called to the shop just minutes later and Avon and Somerset Police has launched an investigation.
In total, more than 300 soft toys were taken by the thieves, according to store management, with both Jellycats and Charlie Bears missing.
The British toy brand Jellycat has boomed over the last year with a wide range of items and collectables fuelling a crime wave of gangs targeting shops stocking the toys.
They come in an array of designs from food and drinks such as the ‘Sassy Sushi Egg’ and animals like the ‘Clunky Cockerel’, and are typically sold for between £12 and £200.
But as demand has skyrocketed so has the numbers of ‘steal to sell shoplifters’, who typically take a large number of toys to then resell online on sites such as Vinted and eBay.
Rare Jellycats can be sold for up to thousands of pounds online, with some shopkeepers resorting to desperate measures to avoid theft, such as security tags and putting the plush toys behind heavy glass cabinets.
Paul Pimlott, company secretary of The Gorge Bear Company which was targeted in the burglary, was unfazed and vowed to carry on trading.
The shop located next to the world famous Cheddar Gorge and Caves has been there for more than 25 years.
Officers were called to the shop just minutes later and Avon and Somerset Police has launched an investigation
One of the thieves swept armfuls of the soft toys into large bags before fleeing the scene
Mr Pimlott said: ‘We had over 300 soft toys stolen in the raid. We’ve been here since 1999 and nothing like this has happened before.
‘But we’ve had lots of support from the community and we will continue.
‘We also own World of Bears in Taunton and have staff to look after. So as a local business we want to carry on contributing locally.’
He urged people to look out for items at car boot sales, on Vinted and eBay.
The shop has been closed since the incident but is due to reopen on Thursday.
An Avon and Somerset police spokesperson added: ‘An investigation is underway into a burglary at a shop in Cheddar which happened in the early hours of Sunday 30 March.
‘We were called at 4.42am to a report that a car had been used to force access to the property in Queens Row with a significant quantity of soft toys having been stolen.
‘Officers were deployed within minutes of the call being made and a search of the area was carried out to try and locate the vehicle involved – a silver Renault Twingo.
‘The investigation is continuing and anyone with any information or footage that could help our enquiries is asked to call 101 and give the call handler the reference number 5225090991.’
