Thief breaks into cafe in cathedral grounds
CATHA thief broke into a cafe in the grounds of a cathedral and took money and alcohol.
Staff arrived at Cath, an independently run cafe inside Becket's ChapeI in the grounds of Peterborough Cathedral, on Thursday morning to find the damage.
Co-owner Sam Smith told the BBC that CCTV showed a masked man smashing the window with a rock and wandering around the cafe on Wednesday night.
"We only have a small float, but what hurts is that he took the staff's tips, and they had worked hard for that," Smith said.
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Cambridgeshire Police confirmed it was investigating the incident but so far had made no arrests.
A spokesperson said the burglary was reported to have taken place at about 23:40 BST on Wednesday and about £200 in cash was stolen as well as two bottles of vodka and a bottle of tequila.
Rallying support
Smith added: "[The thief] came back close to midnight and that's when he started taking stuff."
However, he said regular customers had "really rallied" to support the cafe when news of the break-in came out.
"It didn't slow us down - we just tidied up and got on with it," he said.
Cath staff also wrote on Facebook: "Thankfully, the damage has been cleared up and only a small amount of money was taken."
The cafe was able to open as normal and the cathedral posted on its own social media to say: "Come for the coffee. Stay for the cake. Ignore the crime scene tape."
The cafe's staff added: "As an independent business, things like this are so upsetting.
"Cath has taken an enormous amount of time, money, energy and heart to create.
"We work around the clock to keep it running, support our team and bring something new and exciting to Peterborough."
Writing on Facebook, the cafe added: "When things like this happen... it's hard not to ask ourselves, why do we bother? We put so much into creating something for our town and moments like this can be incredibly disheartening.
"We'll fix it, we'll carry on. Because that's what independent businesses do."
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