The owners of a family-run butcher shop have been left ‘broken’ after £2,000 worth of Christmas deliveries was stolen.
On Thursday morning, a white Ford Transit Custom van containing the goods was taken in Cuckfield, a village in West Sussex.
Paula Hutchings, who owns SK Hutchings in Partridge Green, told BBC Radio Sussex that the driver was mid-delivery when an individual jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off at 11.50am.
Everything from homemade sausages and home-cured bacon to meats from local farms was inside the refrigerated van.
The van was ‘the family’s livelihood’, Paula said, adding that it has ‘nearly broken us’.
‘We’ve had to remake all the meats again and re-deliver them to our very understanding customers,’ she said.
‘It’s had a devastating effect on our family at this time of year and our staff.’
The van is plain and does not have the butcher shop branding on the sides, Paula stressed.
She asked people to be on the lookout for the van as well as for anyone now selling a ‘large quantity of sausages and bacon’.
‘If it had been a couple of days later, it would have been everyone’s Christmas orders, and I don’t quite know what we would have done then,’ Paula added.
‘But it’s been such a lot of work when we’re working 24 hours a day.
‘To think that someone could just drive off while the delivery man is putting the trays in the back to go to his next stop, you just can’t comprehend it, really.’
Police told Metro: ‘Officers responded to a report of a vehicle theft at 11:50am on Thursday, December 19 after a white Ford Transit van containing a large quantity of produce was stolen from Broad Street in Cuckfield.
‘A widespread search effort was undertaken to locate the stolen vehicle, however it has not yet been recovered.
‘Enquiries to establish the whereabouts of the vehicle are ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to report it to police.’
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