THIS morning’s vandal attack on Lechlade Post Office is the latest in a long list of criminal activity to hit the town in recent weeks.

Police were called to the scene just before 2.45am after an alarm was set off at the shop, in the Market Place. It is believed the offenders threw ‘something heavy’ through the glass of the front door but did not gain entry.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

The door of the Lechlade Post Office following attempted break-in

Anne Wilden, head postal officer at the branch, said: “They tried to prize the door open and either that triggered the alarm or then they picked something heavy up to break the door open. That could’ve triggered it.”

Despite nothing being stolen, the attempted break-in has caused much disruption at the shop today.

“Of course, we couldn’t open the post office this morning because when the alarm has been triggered everything goes into shutdown, so we couldn’t get into the safe,” said Anne. “You can’t do anything. We had to get the engineer out, it was all a real nuisance.”

The branch is now open again but Anne is awaiting a glazier coming out to replace the glass panel on the door.

“I believe there has been an arrest,” she added. “They did smash the light over the canopy over the back door, but there was no sign of breaking in the backdoor.”

The incident follows a spate of four arson attacks between May 9 and June 5, and most recently a break in at St Lawrence School over the weekend, where money raised at a fete was stolen.

Anne said: “There’s a bad atmosphere, people won’t want to come here anymore; trade’s gone down. Residents are upset. It’s not nice being here. Every time you walk down the street you feel like you’re being watched.”

If you have any information, contact police quoting incident 19 of July 1.

UPDATE: After further investigatons, police do not believe the incident was a serious attempt to break into the post office, and the crime has been re-classified as criminal damage.