Jellycats worth £20k stolen from Cheddar bear shop by ram raiders
An independent toy shop has had about £20,000 worth of Jellycat and Charlie Bears soft toys stolen in a ram raid. The owners of The Gorge Bear Company in Cheddar, Somerset, said the shop was ram-raided at about 04:40 BST on Sunday. Paul Pimlott, company secretary, told the BBC they rammed into the shop "eight times" using a wooden post as "a battering ram".Avon and Somerset Police said an investigation has been launched, and added officers searched the area to try to locate the silver Renault Twingo involved.
CCTV cameras captured a man and woman looking into the windows about 20 minutes before the incident. A car was then used to gain entry to the shop. In a social media post, the store said a "large quantity" of goods were stolen and urged people to look out for items at car boot sales, on Vinted and on eBay.
Mr Pimlott told the BBC: "Seeing it, there's an element of shock of why would people do that?""There's loads and loads of comments of support which is even more overwhelming," he added."We've had a lot of phone calls on the day. A father phoned in because her daughter was in tears [because] of what's happened to the shop."There's a lot of emotional outpouring because people think it's only a bear, but there's a story behind every bear."The shop has been closed since the incident but is due to reopen on Thursday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Expert shares key red flags to look for in fake DVLA emails
An expert on scams has shared key red flags to look out for to indicate a fake Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) email. Nick Stapleton told BBC Morning Live on Monday (9 June) that scammers sending the phishing emails are 'trying to get you into an emotionally hot state' to 'make you act irrationally'. He advised people to look out for two key phrases which indicate a fraudulent email: 'The enforcement threshold is 72 hours from notice' and 'Do not delay, resolve this today.' Stapleton said this 'threatening' language reminds him of letters sent by the bailiffs, rather than the DVLA. He urged motorists to ignore the phishing emails and instead use the website to check if their vehicle is taxed.
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
I was 15 when my nude pics were leaked – grown men sent them around at the football club & everyone blamed ME
NOT KIDDING I was 15 when my nude pics were leaked – grown men sent them around at the football club & everyone blamed ME Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) LIKE many young girls, Jess Davies wanted to impress her school crush and decided to send him an explicit photo of herself. Little did the 15-year-old know that he would send it around the school and she would become a victim of image abuse. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Jess Davies revealed her nude photo was leaked at just 15-years-old Credit: Instagram/jessdavies "That image got bluetoothed around my school, and then it got shared around my hometown, which was a small hometown in Wales, everyone knows everyone," she explained on the Should I Delete That podcast. Image-based sexual abuse is a criminal offence, it's when someone takes, shares, or threatens to share sexually explicit images or videos of a person without their knowledge or consent, and with the aim of causing them distress or harm. This can include digitally altered images, also known as 'deepfakes' - something Jess has gone on to lobby the government to include in the Online Harms Safety Bill. Now 32, Jess has opened up about the trauma it caused and more shockingly, how she was blamed for the abuse. She revealed that once the photo had circulated in her hometown, it was then shared to grown adult men on the local football team. Instead of seeing Jess as a victim, whose private photo was shared without her consent, people blamed her. "Everyone knew my age because it was a small town, and yet, the whole narrative was around how it was my fault," Jess added. "That I shouldn't have sent it, what kind of girl are you? "There was never any conversation around why are men in their twenties and thirties passing around a child's image?" Jess was left as a teenage girl worrying about how to navigate the situation, and she decided she had to laugh it off. 2 Now, she advocates for sexual abuse victims Credit: Instagram/jessdavies Vicky Pattison shares deepfake porn clip of herself as she warns of dangers on C4 doc She revealed that boys in year 7 would run up and ask for a hug as they had seen the image as well. "I was laughing but secretly, this was humiliating," she said. In the end, her parents also found out about the image, as her nan was told about it from one of the men on the football team, where the image was being circulated. Now, as Jess has gotten older, she realises that the way people treated her for the image was not okay and that she was held more accountable than the grown men sharing the image. It has now led Jess to become an advocate for female rights and sexual abuse. Her BBC documentary 'Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next' was used to lobby the UK government to criminalise deepfake porn. Jess also has a new book, No One Wants To See Your Dick, a guide for surviving the digital age to help us understand and tackle online misogyny and question society's understanding of consent.
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Shamed Huw Edwards' divorce delayed as he's forced to slash £750k from asking price for his family home
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SHAMED BBC anchorman Huw Edwards' divorce has been delayed as the asking price for his family home was slashed by £750,000. His TV producer wife Vicky Flind filed for divorce days after he admitted possessing indecent images of children. Their six-bedroom detached mansion in Dulwich, south London was then put up for sale for £4.75 million last October following the couple's split. 3 Edwards' wife Vicky Flind filed for divorce days after his child sex image confession Credit: �nobledraperpictures 3 Shamed BBC presenter Huw Edwards' divorce has stalled after £750k was knocked off the asking price of his family home Credit: Alamy 3 The couple's six-bed Dulwich mansion was listed for £4.75m last October after their split Credit: Pedder/TNG But no buyers have come forward to take on the plush property amid fears it has been blighted by its links to the telly paedo. The property has attracted so little interest that online site Zoopla is still urging 'be one of the first to view' - nine months after it went on sale. Agents reduced its asking price by £250,000 in February - but a further £500,000 has now been hacked off as the couple attempt to accelerate their split. The couple bought the six-bedroom home for £1.85 million in 2006 and it is mortgage-free - and 63-year-old Edwards expected to rake in more than £2 million from his share of the sale. But the plummeting price means the presenter - who earned £475,000 at the peak of his career - has already lost more than £300,000 he hoped to rake in last year. He did not pay back £200,000 in wages funded by licence payers which he earned between his arrest over child sex charges and his resignation. Court records obtained by The Sun confirm that no decree absolute had been granted to end his 32-year marriage up to June 5. It was unclear whether property sale problems were affecting the divorce - which had been expected to have been finalised by February this year Edwards, 62, pleaded guilty in September to three charges of making indecent images of children and was given a six-month suspended jail term. EXC Shamed Huw Edwards seen for first time since paedo conviction as we reveal he hasn't returned any of his £200k BBC wage The material included abuse videos of children as young as seven, which he received via WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. Ms Flind initially stood by her husband but asked him to leave the family home after his arrest. He has since been living between a flat in Wandsworth, south-west London, and a property in Carmarthen, Wales. His Dulwich home is described by the estate agent as 'a substantial detached mid-century family house' with 'exceptionally spacious living accommodation'. It features three bathrooms, three reception rooms, a library, an office, a double-length garage, and mature gardens with decking. The agency said it sits 'on one of Dulwich's most desirable residential roads'. The couple, who married in 1993, have three sons and two daughters.
