A TAVISTOCK business was badly hit when burglars stole more than £7,000 worth of specialist woodworking equipment last Friday night.
Paul Bick and his wife Yvonne of Yew Turn Woodcrafts lost more than 90 per cent of their stock in the raid.
Yew Turn was one of two shops in the Village Shopping Arcade in Brook Street burgled some time overnight on Friday July 27. Police think the thieves may have broken in through the rear entrance in Paddon's Row.
Mr Bick is puzzled about the burglars' motives because the equipment is very specialised and of use to only a tiny number of people.
'It's not the kind of stuff you can just buy at B&Q or anywhere — some of the glues and tools that went missing you couldn't buy from anywhere else within 100 miles of here.
'They were either really stupid and didn't know or it was all taken to order,' he said.
The thieves also took cash from the till and Mr Bick's mobile phone, which, disturbingly, he says they have been using to send messages to his family.
But Mrs Bick said they had been overwhelmed by the response of other people to their predicament.
'We've had so much support. The police have been brilliant and we've had customers offering us money. Our suppliers have been brilliant too.
'We've just got to take stock over the next couple of weeks,' she said.
Tavistock Saddlery was burgled at the same time — £800 worth of tack was stolen.
DC Pete Wilson of Tavistock CID said the burglars would have needed a vehicle to remove their haul and asked for anyone seeing anything suspicious or having any information to contact him on 08705 777444 at Tavistock police station or on the confidential Crimestoppers line 0800 555111.