Staff tips stolen from a family-run South Shields garden centre just weeks before Christmas
A popular family-run South Shields garden centre has been broken into just weeks before Christmas.
Green Fingers Garden Centre, on Western Approach, in South Shields, was the subject of a break in on Saturday evening (December 13).
As a result of the incident, damage was caused to some of the garden centre’s windows, as well as till floats and staff’s Christmas tips being stolen.
Kenny Coates, the operations manager at Green Fingers Garden Centre, has told the Shields Gazette about how the break in has impacted both himself and the staff.
He said: “I was in bed and my phone went nuts with notifications about alarms and motion being detected in the garden centre and the café.
“I went straight down and the police came along but unfortunately they got away.
“But the worst part of the whole thing is that they’ve taken the staff tips that regular customers have been leaving and now it is all gone.
“It is an invasion of something that we’ve built in South Shields and it is somewhere that I come every day.
“I’ll be honest, it has really shaken me up and I’ve had a little bit of anxiety about coming in on my own or the alarm going off again.
“It is just something that you don’t really expect.”
The garden centre has launched a Go Fund Me page in order to replace the staff tips ahead of the Christmas period - with the business set to match the total amount raised.
You can view and donate to the fundraiser at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-christmas-appeal-for-our-staff-after-a-burglary.
The Shields Gazette has contacted Northumbria Police for a comment.