Appeal after Morecambe milk van stolen in Manchester

Now Stephensons Dairy have used the power of social media to appeal for the van’s safe return after the theft outside Manchester University.

The delivery driver discovered the van was missing after he returned from delivering to Cafe Vivo at the university next door to Christie hospital on Monday morning at around 9.45am.

“He was very shocked...he thought it was a joke at first,” said Steph Stephenson from the White Lund-based dairy.

“He thought he had left the handbrake off and it had rolled back.

“He had completed most of his deliveries but there were still a lot of free range milk, bread and other dairy products inside.”

The firm has four vans in total and Steph said that despite the major inconvenience of losing a vehicle they have been able to meet all scheduled deliveries.

“We hired a replacement van but nobody hires ‘chilled vans’ so we’ve had to put some of our shorter deliveries on a non-chilled van,” she said.

Stephensons tweeted out on Monday that the van was missing and Steph said they had an “incredible” response from the public.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said they believe the thief was a man but have no details of a description of him.

The van was still missing as we went to press.

If anyone can help with enquiries call 101 or 0800 555111 and quote log number 511070817 of August 7 2017.