Community anger the latest business

THE owner of a much-loved independent cafe has described his devastation at losing the equivalent of a month's takings after being burgled.

- ROBERT DALLING

Uisce, in Pontcanna, Cardiff, was also targeted

CannaDeli, located on Kings Road in Pontcanna, Cardiff, was broken into and its cash register taken by thieves on Sunday evening.

Its owner, Tom Roberts, turned up the next day to find its custom glass front door had been smashed. It will cost £500 to replace, roughly the same amount of profit the business makes “on a good month”.

A £70 float that was in the cash register was also lost.

The cafe is one of many businesses in the Canton and Pontcanna areas that have been targeted in a spree of break-ins, which police believe are the work of “one or two individuals”.

Mr Roberts said: “We're closed on a Monday, but I always come in to do some work. I got here to find the glass had been shattered. I was gutted. It is such an invasion of privacy and you feel violated by it.

“I phoned the police straight away, and after pressing multiple buttons on the keypad I finally got through to somebody, and they told me not to board the place up or touch anything, and that a crime scene investigator would be out that afternoon, but I’m still waiting to this day. Nobody has come out to me.

“In the meantime I had to board the place up, otherwise it was an open door for anyone to walk into. I was lucky that we had removed the takings from the Autumn International weekend from the till, but we always leave a £70 float.