Urgent plea issued after Christmas meat worth £2,000 stolen

Traditional butchers had to refill all their orders in time for Christmas (Photo: Google Maps)

The owners of a family-run butcher’s shop have been left “broken” after Christmas deliveries worth £2,000 were stolen.

On Thursday morning, a white Ford Transit Custom van containing the goods was seized in Cuckfield, a village in West Sussex.

Paula Hutchings, owner of SK Hutchings in Partridge Green, told BBC Radio Sussex the driver was delivering when an individual jumped into the driver’s seat and drove off at 11.50am.

Everything from homemade sausages to homemade bacon to meats from local farms was inside the refrigerated van.

The van was “the breadwinner of the family,” Paula said, adding that it “almost broke us.”

“We had to redo all the meats and re-deliver them to our very understanding customers,” she said.

Paula Hutchings said the driver was delivering when someone jumped in the driver’s seat and sped off (Photo: Google Maps)

“It has had a devastating effect on our family at this time of year and on our staff.”

The van is plain and does not bear the butcher’s mark on the sides, Paula pointed out.

She asked people to be on the lookout for the van as well as anyone now selling “a large quantity of sausages and bacon”.

“If it had been a few days later, it would have been everyone’s Christmas orders, and I’m not really sure what we would have done at that point,” Paula added.

“But it’s a lot of work when we’re working 24 hours a day.

“To think that someone could leave while the delivery guy is putting the trays in the back to get to his next stop is really incomprehensible.”

Police told Metro: “Officers responded to a report of a vehicle theft at 11:50 a.m. on Thursday, December 19 after a white Ford Transit van containing a large quantity of merchandise was stolen from Broad Street in Cuckfield.

“Extensive searches were undertaken to locate the stolen vehicle, but it has not yet been recovered.

“Investigations into the whereabouts of the vehicle are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to report it to police.”

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