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Buddhas are beheaded in garden raid
BUDDHA statues were found smashed and beheaded after a gang of burglars caused havoc at a Kentish Town garden centre.
In the raid on the Boma Garden Centre in Islip Street thieves tried to poison a fishpond and dozens of valuable plants – and made off with a set of buddhas worth £400 each.
Co-owner Denise Matthew said that neighbours had directed her to a tree in the nearby Peckwater Estate, under which she found four of the statues.
Two had their heads smashed off.
“This burglary was very unpleasant because there was vandalism as well,” Ms Matthew said.
“People around here are always very upset when we get burgled because so many of them know us – we are a very different sort of garden centre. They call me and say ‘have you been burgled?’ because they have found pieces of buddha.”
In the four years the South African owners have run the centre, they have been burgled six times. On this occasion, however, the break-in had serious malicious intent. Ms Matthew said: “They broke into one of the storerooms where there was lamp-oil, and poured it all over the top of the fish pond so the fish couldn’t breathe.
“They took weed-killers and poured it over valuable plants.
Thefts bad enough, but this is completely unnecessary.”
In addition to the heavy buddhas abandoned nearby, the thieves stole a few tools.
Ms Matthew said: “I think they think there’s good stuff here, but there’s not much that is worth stealing. Certainly a Buddha isn’t something you can just sell on a street corner.”
She has recently fitted a high-tech CCTV system to deter further break-ins.
Camden police confirmed this week that they were investigating the burglary but that no arrests had been made so far. They said thieves gained access over a seven foot, barbed-wire topped fence which was damaged in the raid.
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