A BREAK-IN at a Bentinck Street business has left owners Cath and Phil Snitch feeling “discouraged” about their future.
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Police are investigating after around $2400 worth of musical instruments were stolen from Harmonikos late Monday night.
Mrs Snitch said closed circuit television (CCTV) footage captured a person breaking into and stealing from the family-run business.
The store’s alarm activated at 10.10pm on Monday, and despite the couple arriving at the shop just a few minutes later, the intruder had already left.
“We got some CCTV footage and we can see exactly what the guy did,” Mrs Snitch said.
The intruder threw a material bag containing a lump of concrete through the glass front door to get access to the shop, stealing a $1600 red Parker Nitefly Ash guitar and an $800 Randall RX120D guitar amp.
“The guitar that was stolen was a very unique guitar, there’s probably not another one like it in Bathurst,” Mrs Snitch said.
Mrs Snitch suspects the person had been in the store before due to how quickly they left after the alarm had been activated.
“I’m not angry, I’m just discouraged. We can’t really afford it – with any small business there’s always a cash flow issue,” she said.
“We’re really working hard at making it work [the business] and I just don’t want this to impact it.
“It’s just frustrating and from a business point of view we’ve been starting to build up the quality of stock we can carry.
“It doesn’t make us want to carry expensive stock [after this].”
This was not the first time the business had been targeted: one of the store’s plate glass windows was smashed in April 2014.
A Bathurst police spokesperson said CCTV footage from the break-in had been viewed and the theft was being investigated.
Police have also called on any witnesses, or people offered the stolen guitar or amp, to contact them on 6332 8699.