THREE thugs in balaclavas smashed through a community café after breaking in with crowbars.

The culprits raided The Hub on the Heath, in Poole, before making off with a TV, kitchen scales and a tray of Pepsis.

Owner, Carole Taylor, was set to celebrate the café’s first anniversary before the site was broken into in the early hours of August 5.

Carole only became aware of the break-in after a workman arrived at the café to fix the coffee machine at around 7.20am and noticed the back door had been pried open.

“We thought we had accidentally left the fire door open but then my husband brought up the Ring doorbell footage and there were three masked men in balaclavas,” said Carole.

After arriving at the site, they found the stockroom had been smashed through and the key safe had been forced from the wall.

A few hours later a member of the public found the TV and safe discarded around half a mile down the road.

“The only things they gained were a few cans of Pepsi and my kitchen scales, yet they caused so much damage,” said Carole.

She added: “Every time you walk through it’s a reminder.

“You can’t miss the gouges from the crowbars and the splits in the wood.”

Carole said the culprits came “fully prepared” with balaclavas and crowbars to break into the property.

“All break-ins are horrific and should never happen but when we’re a not for profit and completely self-funded.

“As a family we put everything we had into getting this off the ground for our community, create this amazing space where people feel safe and in the space of half an hour they have obliterated that.”

She added: “This is a safe place for so many people and now they’ve made me feel not safe.

“I can’t help it because I don’t know who these people are, for all I know we’re serving them coffee.”

Following the incident local resident, Emily Swann, set up a Go Fund Me to raise money for Carole to fix the café.

The fundraiser, titled ‘giving back to The Hub on the Heath’, has so far raised almost £800.

Carole there has been an “outpouring of love” from the community and that seeing the café has helped others has been “phenomenal and heart-warming.”

Dorset Police did not respond to a request for comment.