27 April, 2006

A SAFE stolen from a community owned shop in Shetland's remote Westside on Monday night turned up in an unoccupied croft yesterday (Wednesday).

Several thousand pounds from within the safe were also recovered. Police in Shetland are now trying to trace a red van that may have been used in the robbery.

Detective sergeant Lindsay Tulloch said yesterday that following house to house enquiries in the area on Tuesday, police officers were making progress, but were still calling on witnesses to come forward with further information.

The safe was stolen from the Eid Community Co-op shop and post office, in Aith, overnight between Monday and Tuesday.

The detective said: "We are still keen to progress any information we can get from the community. In particular we want to trace a red vehicle, possible a van, which was probably used during the theft. The vehicle could be accident damaged.

"I would like to speak to anybody who may have seen a vehicle of this description acting suspiciously or anybody who may own such a vehicle and may have lent it to somebody in the last week to contact the police.

"We will be contacting owners of red van type vehicles in the area."

He added that he wanted to reassure the community in Shetland that this was an "extremely unusual" crime for the island.

"The last time there was a similar theft was several years ago and at that time somebody was caught for it and successfully convicted," he said.

Police in Lerwick can be contacted on 01595 69 2110 or at Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.