THE owner of a new Lampeter café burgled just a month after opening has spoken of her “eternal gratitude” for the sympathy and kindness of townspeople who have rallied round.

Ainsley Waterman, who runs Caffi Pedr, was dismayed to find intruders had broken into the Bridge Street premises and made off with the entire till and its contents.

“I’ve gone into debt up to my eyeballs to get this new venture off the ground and, frankly, I needed this like I needed a hole in the head,” she told the Cambrian News.

“But the people of Lampeter have just been awesome – everyone has pitched in to help and its just been awesome.

“Loads of people have popped around in person to say how sorry they are – I’ve been completely blown away by it all, to be honest.

“The love we have been getting has far outweighed the sheer aggravation and upset this incident has caused – it has been absolutely phenomenal.”

Ainsley discovered her café had been burgled on Sunday morning of last week as she set about cooking around 40 breakfasts for hungry customers.

“They got in through a side window,” she revealed. “We think whoever’s responsible had come in here before and shut the window, leaving it on the latch to make it look like it was locked.

“What surprised me is that they made off with the entire till – you’d have thought they’d just have nicked the drawer."

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