Burglars steal £25k worth of goods from children's play park

Burglars made off with £25,000 worth of equipment and cash after ransacking a children's inflatable park in Preston.
CCTV of the suspectsCCTV of the suspects
CCTV of the suspects

Two men wearing balaclavas broke into Wacky World on Campbell Street in the middle of the night and made off with sound equipment, a coffee machine, a unique custom-built ‘selfie station’ and a ‘substantial amount’ of money, owners say.

The incident happened at around 1.50am on Thursday. CCTV of the incident shows they fled at around 2.45am but returned 20 minutes later to grab even more loot.

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Michael Bates, general manager at Wacky World, said: “As well as causing some substantial damage, they stole a coffee machine and a state of the art photo booth. There’s only one in the North West so it should be easy to identify. They stole a big speaker system and a substantial amount of cash from the till. It’s stuff that we obviously want back but I doubt we’ll get it at the moment.

CCTV of the suspectsCCTV of the suspects
CCTV of the suspects

"The police are making nifty enquiries. We have some very good leads that they are local. We have had an amazing response on social media and that’s managed to generate a fair amount of leads.”

The theft of the coffee machine led to the cafe being flooded and the play centre had to close on Thursday because of the damage. Michael said: “We were back going strong again the next day.”

Anyone with any information about the Wacky World break-in is asked to contact police on 101 quoting the crime reference number SA1803691.

Police were approached for comment.