Moment masked thieves break into mobile phone shop and take £70,000 worth of items away in bed sheets during three-minute raid

• Footage shows six men dressed in black frantically pulling items off shelves  

This is the shocking moment a group of masked thieves broke into a mobile phone shop and took £70,000 worth of items during a three-minute raid. 

CCTV footage appears to capture six men, many wearing ski masks and latex gloves, robbing Future Phone in Leeds, West Yorkshire on September 5.

The video shows three men behind the till pulling items off shelves and stashing them into bed sheets while two others dash around the warehouse ransacking every shelf at the premises on Wellington Street, which is opposite a Jaguar dealership. 

Meanwhile a sixth man can be seen crouching down at the broken door to watch the robbery before coming inside the shop to help. 

Owner Varun Sharma, 35, told MailOnline: ‘We just feel we cannot make any progress. It is heart-breaking. We were just coming to the busy Christmas. 

CCTV footage captured the moment a group of masked thieves broke into a mobile phone shop and took £70,000 worth of items during a three-minute raid

‘Now the whole year’s profit is gone. We are just working hard for the crooks.

‘They broke in around 2am. In just three minutes, they took £70,000 of stock.’

He added: ‘By the time the police came, they were gone. They broke the glass and went inside.’

The haul included dozens of mobile phones, parts, and LCDs. 

‘They came with bed sheets to carry everything away,’ said Mr Varun. 

Shop owner Varun Sharma, 35, (pictured) said: ‘It is heart-breaking. We were just coming to the busy Christmas’ 

The door of the shop was smashed during the raid which saw £70,000 worth of items stolen 

The shop owner continued: ‘Police have made no progress to date. The crooks even took customers’ phones that were in for repairs.

READ MORE: Retailers forced to spend £30MILLION on private ‘police forces’ to arrest and prosecute shoplifters after ‘giving up’ on getting help from the authorities

‘It was only last year the same thing happened at our other shop when they got away with £30,000 of gear. We never recovered any of it.’

It comes after a Mail on Sunday investigation found that retailers are spending £30 million a year on security and private ‘police forces’ to arrest and prosecute shoplifters after ‘giving up’ on getting help from the authorities.

The move has seen some of the biggest brands in the UK resorting to a private army of uniformed ‘officers’ to protect staff from increasingly brazen and violent shoplifters.

MailOnline has contacted West Yorkshire Police for comment.

Last week chief executive of Newcastle business improvement district NE1, Stephen Patterson, accused shoplifters of turning his city into a ‘supermarket sweep’ – as businesses said wardens are forced to do police work and recover stolen goods.

Mr Patterson described how criminals knock as many items off shelves and into baskets as they can before fleeing.

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