Devastated barber Rob Wheeler has put up a massive sign outside his business with a defiant message to burglars - after suffering three break-ins in just 12 months.
The 38-year-old has also forked out £2,000 on reinforced doors and removed the fruit machine from inside Rob Wheelers, on Hamil Road, Burslem, after the business was repeatedly targeted.
And Rob reveals the fruit machine has gone in his giant sign attached to the outside of the building.
It reads: "To the scum that keeps breaking into the barber shop to steal money from the fruit machine! WE NO LONGER HAVE A FRUIT MACHINE SO PLEASE DON'T BOTHER ANYMORE"
The latest burglary happened on Sunday, May 12. It is feared the burglar escaped with £500 from thr fruit machine.
Rob, from Tunstall, said: "We've been broken into that many times that the police have our number saved on file.
"I got a text early Sunday morning from the police to say we'd been broken into again. I couldn't believe it.
"They go after the money in the fruit machine, and because we'd had these security doors fitted, we decided to leave the fruit machine in the shop.
"But the doors were completely destroyed as well as the fruit machine. And on top of the cost of the repairs, the police have to instruct a company to board up the premises, which we have to pay for too.
"The fruit machine has now gone and I decided to put the sign up to make it as clear as I can that there is nothing left to steal.
"We have CCTV cameras, shutters on the doors and windows and the double-glazed reinforced doors and they still keep targeting us.
"It's completely disheartening and soul destroying. We're a small team and it impacts us directly. We're having to pay thousands of pounds in damage, which is money straight from our pockets.
"Sometimes you feel like you're working for nothing and there is no worse feeling.
"We've been here for 19 years and until the last 12 months, we didn't have any problems. I hope the sign deters them enough and I have no plans to take it down."
Neighbour Callum Kearns managed to disturb the burglar when he returned home from a wedding in the early hours of May 12.
The 54-year-old said: "I was just getting out of a taxi when I noticed someone in the shop across the road. I knew straight away it was a break-in because there was no chance anyone would be in there at that time.
"I crossed the road and the man - who was dressed in black and had his hood up - ran out of the door and up May Street.
"I suffer from severe lung disease so I wasn't able to run after him. I shouted after him to come back and as he was running he told me he'd '******** stab me'.
"People work so hard there and they've been broken into that many times, it just gets my goat. I should have put my own safety first but you just react."
The break-in happened at 4am on May 12.
A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "An offender forced entry into the shop. A fruit machine was damaged and money was taken along with a number of other items."
Anyone with any information about the burglary should call the police on 101, quoting incident number 121 of May 12.
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