Thieves thwarted by dad and son (10)

A shopkeeper and his 10-year-old son scared off three masked robbers who broke into his Sutton St James shop.

Bharat Keshuvara was just closing up the Sutton St James Convenience Store alongside son Aarau on Chapelgate at 7.20pm on Thursday, November 7 when the three men stormed through the door.

Aarau was sitting at the counter at the time and screamed, alerting Bharat who was in the back at the time.

Bharat said he shouted at the robbers and chased them out of the shop still empty handed.

“To be honest I didn’t feel scared,” Bharat said. “That’s the reason they got away with nothing.

“I was just in the back getting carrier bags and getting ready to close in five minutes when I heard my son scream.

“I was there within a second to see the masked robbers with one trying to climb over the counter.

“I just shouted very loud. As soon as they heard my scream they just started to run away.

“I was nearly able to catch the one that was initially about to jump over the counter, but they rolled in front of me a large garden bin they’d brought with them, presumably to fill up with items.

“That slowed me down enough to get to their car and they drove off.

“I then called the police, though someone who was driving had seen what was happening and had also done that.”

Bharat says’s worked in shops for a number of years and that in one particular shop in Peterborough there would be incidents every other week.

However he’d not experienced any issues at all in nine years in Sutton St James.

“There’s lots of shops in villages around here that have been ram-raided recently, so it had been in my mind we could be targeted at some point,” he said. “Thankfully this was all over within 30 seconds and they didn’t take anything.

“It was more frightening for my son. But then later that night he told me he wanted to run a shop with me when I’m older.

“He went off to school the next day as if nothing had happened.

“I’m so very proud of him.”

A spokesperson for Lincolnshire Police, said: “Three men, a 19-year-old and two 18-year-olds from the Wisbech area, have been arrested in connection with this and released under investigation.”

If anyone has any information or witnessed this incident please contact Lincolnshire Police via 101 quoting incident reference 394 of 7 November.