Stolen jumpers turn up on eBay

By Katya Mira

Cashmere sweaters stolen from a family business have been found by one of its customers on eBay.

More than £35,000 worth of goods were taken from clothing firm Woolovers, based in Haywards Heath, at the beginning of the month.

Crooks swiped 800 sweaters and 500 tops on two occasions a few days apart and what had seemed like a bumper Christmas for the company began to look bleak.

But after founder Mark Shenton sent an email round to their regular customers asking them to keep an eye out for the speciality clothes, all labelled with company name, he was pleasantly surprised to get a reply.

One customer told him he had spotted some of the clothing, all still labelled with the Woolovers logo, on internet marketplace eBay.

Mr Shenton passed the information on to the police who retrieved 140 of the tops from an address in East London. A 28-year-old woman from the area was arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

She was released on police bail without charge and was told to return to a police station on January 11.

Mr Shenton said: "It is almost farcical that it was just sitting there on eBay.

"It still had the company's branding all over it and everything - you think they would at least cut the labels out.

"But we are really over the moon - it is a great start to getting some of our stock back.

"I wonder how much more stolen goods end up there on internet sites for all to see.

"Hopefully this will be the tip of the iceberg and will lead to the recovery of more of the stock.

"What really warmed our hearts was the way people were so in the mood for helping and wrote in to tell us about the eBay thing.

"It was nice to have that support."

The gang of thieves first escaped with 800 items on November 27 after breaking into a parish hall in Essex where they were being stored for a sale. Three days later the criminals broke into a Woolovers lorry parked outside the company headquarters at Bolney Grange Industrial Estate and grabbed another 500 tops.

The mail order business has achieved record sales this year but Mr Shenton said the thefts at the busiest time of year were a serious concern.

He said he was concerned the firm was being specifically targeted by professional criminals after the two separate incidents so close to each other in time but far apart in place.