Independent shop owner in Nottingham feels 'destroyed' after business broken into twice

A woman who runs an independent dog bakery says she feels "soul destroyed" after a series of break-ins in Sherwood.

Ruby and Sophia's Dog Bakery was targeted twice by thieves within the space of a month and has had a huge effect on the business.

The first burglary, which took place in May, saw thieves smash the glass in and break the fixtures. They left with a collection of rope dog leads.

After the small business recovered from the break-in, it was targeted again, just one week after resuming trading.

Security cameras were turned off and stock stolen.The cash drawers for the business were later found abandoned and empty in the forest.

Owner Danielle Downs said: "We got broken into a week before we were due to open but luckily, we didn't have a lot of stock in there so it was mainly fixtures and fittings.

"To us, as a dog treat manufacturer, we didn't think people would target us so it wasn't something that had crossed our mind."They took our rope leads which set us back about three weeks before we could restock and open. It was exactly a week that we had been trading before they broke in again.They took all of our accessories and leads which completely cleared us out."Danielle said that the response to the break-ins from the local community has been amazing. However, her business is just one in a series of break-ins across Sherwood that has seen many other small retailers targeted.

She added: "It was soul destroying and I felt very deflated. The only thing keeping me going is the community here as we got so much support from people.

"There have been a lot of break-ins in the area which are continuing at the moment. A pet shop here was broken in along with the Craft Centre. A cafe nearby had their tills stolen two weeks before mine so it's really rife at the moment."Sadly, Danielle was able to watch the second break-in live on her phone as it happened.Danielle said: "We are a small family-run business who have only been going about four years so we are still new to the market. It's had a huge effect on us, especially the second break-in where they took around £4,500 worth of stock. That is a lot to a small business and it took us up to eight weeks to remake the stock to replace it."It's pushed us back massively as we are playing catch up to manufacture stuff. It's peak visitor time so we are missing out on that and it had a huge financial impact on us. I never thought moving into that building where it's quite an idyllic setting with a strong community feel would be so rife with criminals."