On Wednesday 20th September, a man with an axe entered Chesterton Stores on Countess Lilias Road in Cirencester and stole the shop's till, confronting customers and shop owner, Surya Dev, wielding an axe.

The shop is a great asset to the community and as a customer of the store, Mr Dev and his team have brightened many a day with their friendly chat and helpful service. It would be fantastic if the community could give what they can to help this lovely family get back on their feet after a terrible incident which will have no doubt caused emotional - not just financial - scars.

The Wilts and Glos Standard said the following:

Mr Dev, who has run the shop for two years, having moved from London, said it was the first time such an incident had taken place.

He said his wife and two children, an eight-year-old boy and eight-week-old girl, were upstairs at the time of the robbery.

“The unfortunate thing is, we are struggling with the business,” he said.

“The business is not taking any profits. It’s hand to mouth, it’s very tight.

“There’s a lot of competition here, the Tescos, Home Bargains and Lidl, all these shops around,” he said.

“People are just coming here to buy newspapers, mostly the Standard, and they come for cigarettes."

Mr Dev said he had not yet calculated exactly how much money was in the till at the time of the robbery, but estimated it could “take five or six months, maybe more than that, for me to recover from the loss”.

“We are working 16 or 18 hours a day.”

He said he had to close early after the incident as police were at the shop, and opened around 8.30am this morning, more than two hours later than normal.

Asked if he had any anxiety about opening today, Mr Dev said: “I had to. Otherwise we can’t survive.”

http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/15549617.Axe_wielding_thief_steals_till_from_Chesterton_Stores_in_broad_daylight/?ref=mr&lp=2