‘You can’t relax at night’: Dunbar pet shop vandalised for second time in weeks
The business says it has suffered repeated attacks since April
An East Lothian pet supply store which claims to have been “terrorised” for months has been vandalised for the second time in weeks.
Owner Murray Glass discovered black paint had been smeared across the windows and door of Dunbar Pet Food in the town’s West Port on Monday night.
The shop’s CCTV footage showed an individual vandalising the windows at around 7:50pm, two weeks on from a similar attack involving yellow paint.
Mr Glass reported the incident to police, who said: “We were made aware of a vandalism at a property on West Port in Dunbar shortly after 9.10pm on Monday, 9 November.”
Nicola Urquhart, who works at the shop, said the vandalism was the latest in a string of incidents in the last seven months.
She said: “Since April, the car tyres on our delivery vehicle have been slashed about ten times, we’ve had super glue put in both locks of the door, we’ve had eggs thrown at the window, we’ve had one of the windows cracked and then paint thrown twice.
“It's awful when something happens to such a tiny independent shop. We’re all struggling in the High Street nowadays and the money and the time it’s cost us is just an awful horrible feeling.”
The store released footage on social media to help uncover who was behind Monday evening’s incident and was met with a flood of support from locals.
Ms Urquhart said the incidents were out of character for the town which is “such a lovely place to live”.
“We’ve seen that with the support we’ve had from all the local people coming in the shop, everyone's devastated for Murray because he’s so well known in Dunbar,” she said.
Mr Glass, who has run the business for more than four decades, hopes the new footage will help “put an end” to the vandalism.
“It’s horrible because you can’t relax at night wondering what you’re going to drive into the next morning. So many people think vandalism is such a tiny offence but it really does impact every single day,” Ms Urquhart said.
Police confirmed that enquiries into the vandalism are ongoing.