AN INDEPENDENT cafe was burgled less than a week after opening.

Staff arrived at The Forgetful Cat cafe on Saturday to find cash and an iPad had been stolen.

It is thought the culprits broke in to the cafe in Keymer Road, Hassocks, by breaking part of a window.

But owner Sophie Boulderstone said she has been “overwhelmed” by the support from local residents.

The 35-year-old said: “We have been so lucky – people have been coming in asking if they can do anything and people who live in the next street have been coming in to get some take-away cake.

“Everyone has been so lovely and made such an effort to come in that the burglary has not spoiled things.

“It was a shock – we did a lot of the work on the cafe ourselves and created this thing that we love and so it was quite harsh, but subsequently we have just had so much support and feel more like part of the community.

“That is worth so much more than the financial loss.”

Ms Boulderstone also owns Mister Magnolia cafe about a mile away in High Street, Ditchling.

She opened The Forgetful Cat last Monday with her sister, Natalie Skinner, naming both venues after favourite children’s stories.

When staff arrived at work on Saturday, they did not immediately realise what had happened.

Ms Boulderstone said: “The till and change drawer had been taken out and was on the floor somewhere else.

“It was another member of staff who came in and was a bit confused as to whether I had been in and moved stuff around.

“Then I came in about quarter of an hour later and realised someone had broken in.”

She said about £300 had been taken from the till, although all the 20ps were untouched, as was catering equipment.

The stolen iPad was needed to take orders from customers, and the cafe had to shut on Saturday morning while a forensics team gathered evidence.

The burglary is thought to have a happened between 6pm on Friday and 8am on Saturday. Ms Boulderstone appealed for anyone with information to contact police on 101.

Background

The area around The Forgetful Cat has low to average rates of burglary.

In March 2015, about 13 % of reported crimes in the postcode were burglaries, compared to about 50 % anti-social behaviour, according to crimestatistics.co.uk

Late last year Sussex Police announced a special strategy to tackle crime against businesses, the first of its kind for Sussex.

The force said it widely recognised that business crime was under-reported, which it hoped to change.

It created a new role, Strategic Lead for Business Crime in Sussex, to help implement the strategy.