THIEVES broke through a brick wall in order to steal over a dozen chainsaws from a family-run business.

Dawn and Roland Smith, who own Penn Lawn Mowers in Ringwood, were alerted to the robbery at around midnight on Monday when their shop alarm went off.

When they arrived at the store, they discovered a big hole in the wall of their stock room and around 14 chainsaws missing – one of which is worth over £1,000.

They immediately called the police who are currently investigating the incident.

Dawn said it was “devastating” being robbed.

“Things like this hit us very hard. It’s soul destroying when you work all the hours to have your own business and then things like this happen.

“All the chainsaws were Husqvarna. One of them was a very rare Husqvarna 562XP, which you can’t buy in this country. It belongs to my son, and he’d been trying for the last two years to get one. You’re not going to see those very often so we’re asking anyone who is offered one to please contact us or the police.”

Dawn said she had viewed the CCTV footage taken during the robbery and had given it to the police.

“There were three males who arrived around 9pm and moved one of the outside cameras off its brackets.

“At around midnight, they managed to enter the property through the wall and get in through the gap. The CCTV inside shows them shining a torch through first so they could decide what they wanted to get.

“It’s a shock this has happened. It’s never happened to us in the 16 years we’ve been open, although we’ve had people trying to do things over the years.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary said they were not yet linking the robbery to another, similar incident which saw a garden machinery shop in Merley ram-raided on Monday, January 16.

The thieves targeted Ashington Garden Machinery, at Queen Anne Drive, just after 10pm.

Four men used bolt cutters to unlock the gates and then reversed into the shop unit before stealing chainsaws and hedge trimmers.

Anyone with information about the robbery at Penn Lawn Mowers is asked to call police on 101, quoting crime number 44170029156.