Phones worth £12,000 stolen by masked raider who broke into Sheffield city centre shop

Phone-Geekz Sheffield was broken into in the early hours of yesterday (Friday, November 4). The raid came just a year after phones of a similar value were taken in another break-in.

Shop owner Mohammad Khan said security was upgraded after the first raid but if thieves are determined to get in they will always find a way. His shop is in the Forum building on Devonshire Street.

He said he hopes police officers will apprehend the culprit because those involved in the previous raid got away with it. Mr Khan said want officers to trawl through CCTV footage from all the cameras in and around the shop to try to identify the thief.

“I would like to think that whoever was involved will be caught by I am not hopeful after last time because they got away with it,” he said.

Mr Khan, who is still trading, said the break-in came at a bad time in the run-up to Christmas. But he vowed not to let criminals drive him out of business.

“We were looking forward to Christmas shoppers coming because it is difficult with the cost of living crisis. But it also difficult because there seems to be no support for small businesses.

“After the last break-in, the police came on that day but I never heard from them again, and I never heard anything from the council at all. It would have been nice if there had been some kind of interest show, but we are just left to get on with things.”

He added: “We won’t let these setbacks stop us from providing a service to the people of Sheffield. We’ve been here since 2016 and want to continue. We just want the police to find who did this to stop it happening again.”

Anyone with information about the raid or whereabouts of the stolen phones should call South Yorkshire Police on 101. Crimestoppers can also be contacted on 0800 555111.