Burglar spends THREE HOURS bubble wrapping collectors' items in daring raid on model railway shop

It may not be on the same scale as the famous Great Train Robbery, but is nearly as audacious.

Rather than grabbing what he wanted and fleeing in a daring raid on a model railway shop, this burglar spent hours carefully wrapping his spoils in bubble wrap.

CCTV images show the culprit carefully selecting valuable collectors items including Hornby carriages and engines and wrapping them up to keep them safe.

Dressed in overalls and wearing special workmen’s rigger gloves, the man smashed his way into Paignton Model Shop in Devon through a ceiling from a lane at the rear.

In the well-planned burglary he removed the CCTV from the wall – but forgot to take the camera with him, leaving police and shop owners Susan and Richard Willcox with blow-by-blow images of the whole four-hour break-in.

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Susan said: “We reckon he was in our place for more than three hours – he even bubble-wrapped the stolen goods. It was specialist Hornby stuff he was after.”

The couple say it’s too early to know everything that has been taken and put a value on the damage but want the CCTV picture to be widely circulated in a bid to find the culprit.

Susan added : “We’ve got a big customer base all over the country because there aren’t so many model shops around nowadays.

“The picture will go to all our customers and all the reps.”

(Top picture: SWNS)