By Cara Sulieman
A BOY involved in a smash and grab raid is thought to be as young as ELEVEN.
Three boys are believed to have broken into the post office in Dechmont, West Lothian and stolen cigarettes and alcohol.
The door of the shop was kicked in on Saturday night and the cigarette case was smashed open.
Two of the three suspects were caught on the shop’s CCTV, leaving staff stunned at the age of the young lads they saw.
“Inconvenience”
The manager, Liz Reid, said she was horrified to discover the break-in.
She said: “We are a close-knit area of only about 1,100 people and this is the only shop around, right in the heart of our community.
“It’s a serious inconvenience for this to happen and it has shaken us a bit, especially given how young these boys seem to be.
“The CCTV footage is quite clear and it looks like the vandalism was committed by people who aren’t from around here.
“We saw strangers earlier that day carrying golf clubs around, and we believe the glass door might have been smashed with these.
I’m shocked because one of the lads only looks about 11 and the other one looks 14 or so. They raided the place in under two minutes.”
“Very young”
Around £300 worth of cigarettes were taken in the burglary along with an unknown quantity of alcohol.
The police are trying to track down three suspects in connection with the raid.
The first is described as male, aged around 11, 5ft, wearing a black t-shirt with a large motif on the front.
The second is also male, 13 to 15 years, 5ft 6in, and was wearing a yellow and white hooded top with dark striped trousers.
The third couldn’t be indentified.
West Lothian PC Sai Chan said: “Going by the physical size and shape, these kids are very young, as young as 11 years old. You get people younger than that stealing on the streets, but not breaking and entering like in this incident. This is a unique situation.”
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