The owner of a Letchworth jewellery store has thanked the community for their support after being targeted by burglars twice in 48 hours – with £1,000 worth of stock stolen in the second raid.

The Jewellery Box in The Arcade was targeted on Saturday night into Sunday morning, leaving the store front damaged. It was then successfully broken into again on Monday night.

Owner Miles Singleton took to Facebook following the initial attempted break-in and said: "To the person or persons who tried to break in to my shop last night please be aware, although it's a retail shop, a real person owns it, and it's me, not some faceless corporation.

"It was me who was there until gone 2am clearing up and making it secure, and it was me who was there to meet the police at 9.30am.

"It's now nearly 1pm on my only day off in the week and I'm heading home, having installed CCTV and fortified the temporary repairs.

"So thanks, I have put my heart and soul into my shop for the last 14 years and believe me, as a shopkeeper in Letchworth, you do it more for the enjoyment and not the financial rewards, and now you have me wondering if it's worth continuing with my dream."

Customers of the store also took to the social media platform to express their support for the jewellery store, which has been in The Arcade since 2005.

However, the jewellery shop was targeted again on Monday evening and this time offenders gained access and took £1,000 worth of stock.

He said: "The alarm was going, but it didn't put them off. We've now got them on CCTV.

"It's par for the course in the world we live in, but the messages I have had on Facebook have been quite heartening.

"Lots of people have come into the shop and have been wishing me well."

A police spokesman confirmed that officers attended both incidents, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, and around 9.45pm on Monday night.

During the second incident, offenders broke through display cabinets and a number of items of jewellery were stolen.

Anyone with information about the attempted break-in on Sunday morning should call police on 101 quoting ISR 022 of July 21.

To report information about the burglary on Monday evening, quote ISR 890 of July 23.