Hooded men steal nursery children’s milk from school

CCTV of suspects following theft of milk at Edith Cavell Academy. PIC: Supplied by Edith Cavell Academy. (Image: Archant)

The men walked across the playground of Edith Cavell Academy and loaded up 20 pints of milk into carrier bags just minutes after it had been delivered to the school.

The audacious raid at the Duckett Close school, which happened just after 2.30am on Tuesday morning (September 24), was only discovered at the start of the school day.

Tracy Bocz, inclusion and school support manager, said: "When we went to get the milk it was gone. We then looked at the CCTV and saw it had been taken and called police.

"It's really sad because we're clearly a school and it was clearly for children."

Mrs Bocz said they got regular deliveries of milk during the week for the school's two-, three- and four-year-olds.

She said: "The milk was only delivered at 2.12am and by 2.33am it was gone.

"We picked it up on CCTV.

"You can clearly see two guys on CCTV. They come in from one side with hoods up, they walk across, put the milk into bags and leave with bags full of milk - they just walk away.

"I'm assuming they knew it was there because they walk straight there.

"I don't know what we were expecting but we weren't expecting to see two people that were there for that purpose.

"It's just annoying. It's a shame because it was for the children and not for anyone else."

She added: "I think its quite worrying that there are people out there at that time with that purpose.

Mrs Bocz said they had to replace the stolen milk with staff supplies to ensure that the youngsters did not miss out on their free supplies.

She said: "We rely on the milk to give our children the nutrients they need.

"It's maybe a small thing to the community but to the children it's quite a big thing. It's a real shame these things are happening to our young people."

The theft has been reported to police.

Anyone with information should call 101.