Three teenagers charged following garden centre break-in

Friday, 17 September 2021 10:33

By Adam Clark

Three teenagers have been charged with burglary following a break-in at Gordon Rigg Garden Centre in Rochdale.

Two 17-year-old males and a 15-year-old male have been charged with burglary and bailed to appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 21 September.

Police were called to the garden centre on Moss Bridge Road just after midnight on Saturday 11 September to reports of a burglary.

Those involved took sweets and soft drinks as well as charity collection boxes from local and national charities including Springhill Hospice, RSPCA, the Royal National Institute of Blind People & Macmillan Cancer Support, the store said.

They also smashed the store’s three tills that were empty.

Store Manager of Gordon Rigg in Rochdale, John Jackson commented: “We leave the tills doors open so if people do come in, they can see there’s no money in the till.

“That didn’t make any difference they still rifled through the tills, smashed all the tills up.

“They took them back outside, up onto the roof, they got the charity boxes, but them on the roof and that’s where they smashed all the boxes open and tried to get in the tills.

“I’ve got three lads on CCTV walking down the road”

He was determined to have the store open the next day, they used the spare tills from the bistro and borrowed one from their Todmorden store.

Along with director Pauline Rigg and another member of staff Mr Jackson spent from 11:30 pm on Friday (10 September) until around 4 am (11 September) on Saturday morning cleaning up the damage made.

“Fair play to Pauline (Rigg), she’s picking grass up in the office and we were ready and back open for 9 am the morning after. She didn’t have to come out”

“We’ve had a fire before now and opened the day after”

The store hasn’t let this get them down he concluded by saying, “Onwards and upwards, we are putting Christmas out tomorrow, puts us all in a better mood”