Sobo Beach restaurant broken into weeks after opening

A man climbed down into the restaurant's open-top double decker bus and stole cash and alcohol last week, staff say.

In a post on Twitter, Sobo Beach posted CCTV footage of a man inside the bus with the caption: “It is disappointing but we were broken into in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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Sobo Beach bar

"We are appealing for any witnesses who saw this individual around 6am in the vicinity of the beach, or any information that leads to his identification.”

Speaking about the break in, operations manager, Rich Slater said: “A guy broke in in the early hours, just after 6am yesterday morning.

“It was quite a brazen time of day to do it because there are already people around on the beach at that point so we're hoping somebody might have seen something.

“He broke in up over the top of the bus and down through the inside and basically raided the tills for the till floats and took some bottles of spirits with him.

“I’ve reported it through the online portal yesterday and I haven't had contact back from the police yet.

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Alcohol inside the bar

“It’s just an extra frustration when we've been rushing to get open in time for summer at short notice and with everything else going on, it’s been complicated enough and this is an extra added complication we don’t really need right now.”

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we received a report at 10.06pm on Thursday 28 July 2022 in relation to a break-in at Sobo Beach on Southbourne seafront.

“It was reported that entry was gained to a bar area at around 6am on Thursday 28 July and cash and spirits were stolen.

“Officers will be carrying out enquiries into this incident. No arrests have been made.”

When asked whether Sobo Beach would be continuing service as normal, Mr Slater said: “We refuse to be stopped from doing what we do best.”