BURGLARS struck at a fourth Wirral Co-operative Food store in less than a month.

Police were called to the supermarket on Laird Street, Birkenhead, at around 11.40pm on Wednesday night.

On arrival, officers found that the metal shutters at the front of the store had been damaged.
The shop was searched by police but the burglars had already left the scene.

A number of bottles of spirits are believed to have been taken during the raid, with police since sealing off the store to allow a full forensic search to take place.

House-to-house enquiries have also been carried out in the area and officers have obtained CCTV footage.

The store is the fourth Co-operative store to be targeted on Wirral to be targeted since early December.

The first burglary took place on December 10 when culprits made off with thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes from a store on Manor Drive, Upton.

Just four days later, two men armed with a hatchet held up the Co-op store on Cross Lane, Bebington, making off with cash.

And on January 4, Bebington’s second Co-op store was targeted, with staff discovering burglars had taken thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes from the Church Road store overnight after removing bricks from the wall between the store and an empty building next door.

A spokesman for The Co-operative Food said: “We take incidents of retail crime extremely seriously, across all Co-operative Food outlets. A series of measures, including a security tagging system and CCTV cameras, are in place to prevent incidents of this nature.

“Whenever crime occurs, we will always involve the police and, as with any incidents such as this, we would appeal for anyone with information to come forward.”

Anyone with information should call Merseyside Police on 0151 777 2260 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.