Balaclava-clad suspects ‘behind £250k handbags theft' caught on CCTV
Police have released images of the balaclava-clad suspects allegedly behind the theft of handbags worth £260,000.
A trio of burglars took 55 luxury handbags from a boutique in the exclusive Cheshire village of Prestbury on Sunday night.
The ski mask-wearing intruders broke in from a disused property next door, drilling through the shop's chimney to gain access.
They then made a getaway with the high-end handbags, worth as much as £25,000 each.
Cheshire Constabulary released CCTV images of the suspected burglars on Wednesday in an appeal for members of the public to identify them.
Det Con Clare Slattery, of Macclesfield CID, said: 'Enquiries in relation to this incident are ongoing and we're committed to doing all we can to identify the people responsible.
'As part of our investigation we're keen to identify the men pictured in the CCTV images as we believe they may hold vital information.
'If you recognise the men, please contact us. I would also like to appeal directly to the men in the CCTV images to get in touch.'
Christine Colbert, the owner of the boutique, watched the burglary live on CCTV from her home.
'I went to bed about 10.30pm on Sunday so I was asleep when we got a call from the monitoring company,' Mrs Colbert told the Daily Mail.
'I immediately switched on the CCTV on my phone and I could see a man crouching down and bricks all over the floor. I said to my husband Gary, 'We're being robbed.' I was panicking.'
Mrs Colbert said that watching the footage back, she could hear the noise of drilling for more than an hour before the raiders broke through.
She added added: 'They were big burly men, and they were all in black with goggles, balaclavas, and gloves. They took three or four minutes to whirl round the shop and grab all the bags.
'One man had a duvet tied round his neck like a pouch which he threw the bags in. Another man put everything up his arms – they were full of bags.
'Then they hurled the handbags through the hole they'd made. Respect for the bags was zero.'
The gang dropped just two of the bags, which were among the least valuable.
The next-door building was empty following an arson attack.
Items worth £180,000 were stolen from Mrs Colbert's shop last year after burglars entered through a window.
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