Staffordshire Police

Incident at the Aldi foodstore, Rugeley

Officers from Stafford CID are appealing to the public for information, following an incident at the Aldi foodstore on Market Street in Rugeley last night.

At 8.05pm, just five minutes after the store had closed to the public, staff opened a fire door at the rear of the shop in response to people banging on it.

Three men, described as in their late teens to early 20s’, of medium to heavy build and wearing black coats, hoods and blue jeans pushed through the door. 

Keeping a 32-year old male member of staff with them in the rear of the store, two of the offenders took the second staff member, a 23 year old woman into the cash office and accessed the safe, taking a substantial amount of cash.

Ten minutes later at 8.15pm, the three men left the store by the same fire exit. They took with them a black Ben Sherman leather messenger-style bag with a Burberry type checked lining which belonged to the male member of staff, and his Sony Erricson, silver-coloured flip mobile phone.

Officers believe the men, all of whom had local accents and two of whom are believed to be white, either left Market Street on foot or had a vehicle parked on Station Road, close to St. Augustine’s church.

DC 4875 John Owen from Stafford CID said: “We’re urging people to let us know if they saw anyone acting suspiciously in the vicinity of Aldi yesterday, just prior to the store closing or after 8.15pm. 

“We’re also anxious to locate the black messenger-style bag and mobile phone which belonged to the shop assistant and would ask if anyone finds these discarded locally, they contact us immediately.”

The two staff involved in the incident, a man from Cannock and a woman from Walsall, were shocked and received treatment from paramedics at the scene, but were not taken to hospital.