A FISHERIES owner has expressed his delight after a £16,000 buggy was found following a powerful community effort to get it back.

Although Bradshaw Hall Fisheries is closed to the public due to the lockdown, staff have been going to work to feed the fish at the 50 acre site using a John Deere buggy.

Owner Damian Brennan left the Slack Lane premises at 5.03pm on Wednesday, but a tracker app alerted him to the fact that the buggy had been taken just 15 minutes later.

A fence was smashed to gain entry and a gate was ruined by the buggy on its way out.

The Bolton News:

The Bolton News:

Damage caused after the buggy was stolen

Damian put a post on his business Facebook page on Wednesday evening and got an overwhelming response from residents.

CCTV images and reports of where the buggy was spotted were sent to him, which suggested that the buggy had been driven to Moses Gate.

The Bolton News:

The Bolton News:

CCTV images of the buggy being driven after it was stolen

And yesterday, Thursday, police said they had found it in that area.

Damian praised the community for their role in retrieving it.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have the buggy back.

“The post was shared more than 39,000 times and I had 200 messages about where it had been seen.

“Obviously we are shut at the moment and this was the last thing we needed.

“We have to feed the fish and that costs more than £1,000, quite a lot of money.

“The buggy is used to carry the food, and without it, a two-hour job turns into a six-hour job.

“There’s only been one person working at a time at the moment so we can keep our distance from each other but we all had to come into work on Thursday to fix the fence and stop access to the fisheries," he added.

“Nobody wants to be doing that at this time.

“The people who do things like this are vermin.”

A CCTV image also shows a blue van near the site, which is believed to be linked to the theft.

The Bolton News:

The blue van captured on camera

It has been reported to have been seen around other properties in the area too.

Damian recalls that the fisheries was targeted a few years ago when there were five burglaries in the space of a couple of months.

If you have any information about the incident contact police quoting ref 2,432 of April 8.