A department store on Crickhowell High Street is still open despite the store being hit by a ram raid at around 1am this morning.

Thousands of pounds worth of products were stolen from Webbs of Crickhowell and laminate windows were smashed by burglars who reversed a car into the windows in order to break in to the store.

Police are involved and investigating the incident and the business remains open having boarded up the windows.

Webbs of Crikhowell
Damaged caused to the Webbs of Crickhowell store by burglars last night. (Webbs of Crikhowell)

“It was quite the shock at one o’clock in the morning,” said Peter Webb of Webbs of Crickhowell. “As a family we’ve had worse to deal with, a couple of years ago my cousin, Harry, was knocked off his bike and killed, so you know it’s bricks and mortar. Stock has been stolen and it is upsetting that we’re a long standing family business and we work hard. For someone to come and just take, it leaves a bitter taste but we won’t let them get us down.

“We’ve already tidied up, insurance companies contacted, police have been dealt with and the place is boarded up so we’re carrying on as normal. We won’t bow down to that kind of nonsense.

“Everything was chained up but they had bolt cutters so they knew what they were doing. They loaded up on a load of chainsaws, hedge cutters and many thousands of pounds worth.”

Webbs of Crikhowell
(Webbs of Crikhowell)

Peter was complimentary of the police’s involvement in the situation. He said: “The police have been excellent actually and were here very quickly last night and the Crimes Officer was here first thing this morning and was here for most of the morning. It was all very thorough and we’ve had a couple of detectives taking statements and looking at CCTV so we’re reassured by the way the police have behaved.”

Webbs of Crikhowell
(Webbs of Crikhowell)

Webbs broke the news of the incident in a Facebook post this morning. In the post the family-run business shared a message of strength saying: “Many are already aware that we had some extremely unwelcome visitors last night who have caused considerable damage. As a small family business, this is obviously upsetting, but we’re made of strong stuff, they will not get us down!

“We’d like to reassure you all that we are very much OPEN as usual…”

Dyfed-Powys Police has been approached for a comment.