'Carnage': Businesses lose thousands in Bridgnorth industrial park raids
Cash and thousands of pounds worth of equipment was stolen by thieves from a Bridgnorth industrial park.
Business owners said they had been struggling to sleep after the "devastating" break-in at Stanley Lane Industrial Estate.
Six thieves are believed to have spent three hours trying to break into six units in the early hours of Sunday morning, successfully forcing their way into three of them.
It is the third time units have been raided within the last 18 months.
Tim and Coral Beardmore, who run gardening machinery firm Mower Mec, said that around £5,000 in garden equipment and cash had been taken.
They shared CCTV footage of the suspected thieves on social media and have received hundreds of messages of support.
Mr Beardmore said: "Burglary isn't a victimless crime.
"We're gutted, it makes you struggle to sleep. It is our livelihood, everything is wrapped up in our business.
"People think they can come and take it away from us.
"One of the men just totally annihilated our rolling shutter doors, and took every handheld piece of equipment. Emptied the till of cash. It wasn't a fortune, but it was enough."
Mrs Beardmore spoke of her anger at the raid.
"We feel absolutely violated," she said.
Customers
"We work 100 hours each week between us. We pay our taxes and somebody walks in and gives us even more work to do, leaving us to sort out the carnage."
Shortly after the burglary, the couple shared their CCTV footage on social media in the hopes that those responsible will be recognised.
They said their customers had been hugely supportive in the wake of the burglary.
"Our customers have been amazing," Mrs Beardmore said.
"I'm in the midst of calling all the customers up, trying to make them know that we'll replace their equipment."
Somebody had spotted that the Mower Mec door was open over a mobile phone CCTV feed.
"We had the call on Sunday," Mrs Beardmore said. "Someone spotted that our door was open and said we'd had a break-in.
"As soon as we got down there it quickly became apparent that it wasn't just us."
Anybody with information is asked to call police on 101.
Alternatively, information can be passed on anonymously to crimestoppers by calling 0800 111555 or visiting crimestoppers-uk.org,
In 2016 fellow Stanley Lane Industrial Estate business owner Mark Writtle called on Shropshire Council to improve security at the site.
The Writtle Photographic owner said the site needed renovation, repairs and upgrading.
