Thieves wrote apology on table after ransacking and flooding pub

Thieves ransacked and flooded the oldest pub in Merseyside before scrawling a message saying they were sorry. CCTV footage shows the gang as they broke into the Scotch Piper Inn in Lydiate, which dates back to 1320. The burglars ripped a boiler off a wall to get at the pub safe, bursting a pipe and severely damaging the interior of the Grade II listed building.



Phil Moran, who runs the inn with his business partner Julie Pringle, said the three men struck at around midnight on 24 October, just minutes after he locked up and went home. He said: “They broke in upstairs and had a look around there and then they broke in at the back of the building.

“They pulled the immersion boiler on top of the safe off the wall, which flooded the place. It’s caused extensive damage downstairs. It was a sea of water when I came in the next morning. They took enough to make it hurt. They took the safe itself and a lot of stock as well.”



After smashing two windows and flooding downstairs, one of the gang wrote an apologetic message in permanent marker on a nearby work surface. It read: “Sorry tried to turn water off. Could not find it. Hope you fix pub.” Mr Moran said: “They must have had a guilty conscience, but it’s hard to speculate what sort of mindset they had.”