Burglary – Restaurant in Rochdale Left Trashed

Yorkshire Street, opposite from the burglary site.

The Manchester Evening News has recently reported on a burglary that occurred in a restaurant that had not long opened, in Rochdale. The Chocolate Bar in the town’s centre was targeted a mere seven weeks after opening it’s doors.

The culprits broke into the premises on the corner of Cheetham Street and Yorkshire Street, through the rear of the building. The Thieves stole from a collection for charity that was in memory of Danny Jones, a 29 year old Keighley Cougars rugby player within the restaurant. They also took the till, iphones, ipads, bottles of spirits and ripped the safe from the wall. In addition to the property and takings that were stolen, the business sustained a costly amount of damage at the hands of the burglars. Equipment was destroyed, vases smashed and food and drink was thrown up the walls.

The Manager Victoria Ballard started the business with her husband Martin in Spring this year. She arrived at work the morning after the crime had been committed and discovered the state of the eatery.

“It was a real mess … I can understand them taking the money, but the way they damaged everything and left it in that state was just unnecessary and it seemed to be really malicious … Someone tried to break in just before we opened, but didn’t manage it so they must have tried harder this time … We’re only in our seventh week, so it’s not a nice thing to have happened.” Mrs Ballard said.

Mr Ballard stated …

“What really grated me was the charity money … It was taken out of a bucket that was sealed and labelled as Danny Jones Fundraising Appeal. That was really disgusting … They didn’t stop us though … We were open by noon on the day of the break-in serving with a calculator and a carrier bag as a till, but we weren’t letting it stop us … We even carried on with our acoustic session that night with the very talented Paddy O’Hare, although the thieves had kicked in the PA system we use so he had to do his best.”

Following the events of that night, Mr and Mrs Ballard have now installed CCTV cameras at the restaurant.

If you have any information that could help the police with their enquiries please call 101 or alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

With thanks for the photograph of Yorkshire Street in Rochdale to © Copyright robert wade and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.