A CIRENCESTER shop worker who spent the small hours of Sunday morning clearing the wreckage wrought by vandals who smashed plate glass windows in Gosditch Street has been praised by the shop’s owners.


Anna Gell was fast asleep at her Cirencester home when she heard knocking at her door at 3am on Sunday.


“They scared the life out of me,” Anna, 49, said.


“The doorbell rang, then there was a knock on the window but we thought it was just somebody being stupid.


“Then it rang again and we thought: ‘It is someone, what do they want?’


“When I got downstairs there was a policeman waiting.”


The officer informed her that vandals had smashed two of the front windows of Cotswold Living, in Gosditch Street, where she worked.


Despite the hour, Anna rushed down to the shop.


There she found broken glass strewn across the road and all over the inside of the listed building.
She stayed there until the sun came up, clearing up the glass and organising for the windows to be boarded up.


Adam Brown, 42, who owns the bespoke furniture shop with his wife Rosy, said Anna had truly
gone above and beyond the call of duty.


“The police couldn’t get hold of us and we live in Minchinhampton but Anna got up in the middle of the night to sort things out,” he said.


“By the time we got here in the morning everything had been done.”


The unprovoked attack has cost the business more than £2,000.


Nothing was stolen but the broken glass damaged furniture and ornaments in the shop and the windows had to be boarded up for two days before they could be replaced.


It is not just the cost of the repairs, although substantial, that worries Adam.


“On Saturday we had people in the shop from Essex, Southport and Birmingham who all came to the town because it is a nice place and you can buy nice things – people come here to see the brand of Cirencester.


“We are working hard to make it something special but there is an element out there who have no issues about making the place look dreadful.


“Somebody has got to do something or else it will happen again and people will stop coming here, and that’s not a town anyone wants to live in.


“People shouldn’t be allowed to get away with invading someone’s property.”
Police are investigating the incident.


A woman left a message on the shop’s telephone to say she saw what had happened and might know the two people involved, but she did not leave a name or number.


Adam and Rosy are urging the woman to call again.


Anyone with information is asked to contact Gloucestershire Police on 101 quoting incident number 69 of April 19.