A ‘heartless’ thief who stole £3,000-worth of power tools left staff at a purpose-built attraction for disabled children in a race against time to reopen.

The brazen burglar pinched the tools from Fairytale Farm near Chipping Norton in the early hours of Wednesday – only to be caught on CCTV.
Staff have been forced to use hand tools to finish getting the farm ready for its seasonal opening today.

Their endeavours were a success, but the attraction now needs to find the money to replace the tools.

Owner Nick Laister said: “It is very heartless but these sort of people just take whatever opportunity they can.

“Without the tools all the work has taken five times longer than it should have done.

“It has come at the worst time of the year for us financially because we have been closed since December 24 and we have had no income at all.

“Things are tight, it is the worst month.

“Any help that people can give would be greatly appreciated.”

The thief was caught on the farm’s CCTV as he broke into the workshop building shortly after 3am.

Dressed in trainers and a hoodie and using a mobile phone as a torch, the man stole all of the farm’s power tools, including angle grinders, drills and jigsaws.

Mr Laister said: “It is a big setback for us because we have to secure funding for everything we do.

“You can see him walking into and out of the building, going in empty handed and coming out each time with more power tools.

“Eventually he spots the CCTV camera and moves it so that it is pointing up to the sky, but not before going right up to the camera to do this.”

The farm was opened in 2013 by David Cameron and its design and layout aimed to put disabled children first.

Mr Laister and his wife Nicola spent almost five years creating it, inspired by their daughter Olivia who has cerebral palsy.

It gives youngsters the chance to meet and pet animals and take part in a range of other activities.

The theft comes after £3,000 of Christmas lights were stolen in December 2015 and never recovered.

Mr Laister said: “In the CCTV you can see what the person was wearing so hopefully it will jog people’s memories.

“If you were out at that time of the morning you might have spotted someone dressed like that.

“Also if anyone is offered quite a lot of power tools then they should tell the police.”

Anyone with information should call 101 and quote reference number 43170040318.