A BUSINESSWOMAN has hit out at ‘disgusting’ thieves who broke in to her butcher’s shop and stole charity collection boxes.

Faye Moffat, 31, was asleep in her flat above Nicholson’s Butcher’s Shop in Nelson in the early hours of yesterday morning when she heard a loud crashing noise.

Her husband went to investigate and found that thieves had smashed their way through the shop’s glass front door with a concrete slab and stole three charity collection.

The boxes, which police said contained around £50, were raising money for Dogs For The Blind, the North West Air Ambulance and the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Nothing else was taken and Mrs Moffat said the experience was frightening, given that her two children were asleep upstairs.

She said: “We were above the shop and at about 3.30am we heard a massive crash. We weren’t sure what it was so he went down in to the shop.

“There was nobody there but the glazed door from the shop had been broken.

“That had put it through with a big concrete slab. It was safety glass and had smashed in to about a thousand pieces so they used an old safety cushion to get in so they wouldn’t cut their knees.

“Someone living opposite came out and saw two people running off but unfortunately they got away before the police came.”

Mrs Moffat said the shop has had charity collection boxes stolen before so they had purposely put them behind the counter.

She said: “It’s horrendous. How low do you have to be to steal charity boxes? I think they were disturbed by my husband coming down the stairs.

“It’s scary because we live here and our children were sleeping upstairs.”

No arrests have been made and police have not issued any suspect descriptions.

A police spokesman said: “We were called to a butcher’s shop in Railway Street in Nelson to reports of a break-in.

“An offender has a glass door in the shop and removed three charity boxes containing approximately £50. They have then escaped on foot.

“No arrests have been made and enquiries are ongoing.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting log number 134 of June 22.