An Inverness woman says she feels like “giving up” on her B&B business after being regularly being a target of thieves.
Fiona Blair has reported 26 thefts to police in the past 17 years she has been running MacDonald House with her husband, Stuart.
Mrs Blair has gone so far as to install her own CCTV cameras outside her home.
Mrs Blair says officers told her it is likely to be the work of criminal gangs from outside the area who use ‘walkie talkies’ to communicate for “in and out jobs”.
On one occasion about five years ago, Mrs Blair’s holiday to Majorca was ruined when she came downstairs to find her handbag missing along with £10,000 of business takings and holiday money inside. She said police returned the handbag but were unable to return the money, as a spate of cash robberies that same day made it difficult to prove any confiscated money belonged to her.
And last week, while attending her mother-in-law’s funeral, a bench worth £250 was stolen from outside the guesthouse.
Yesterday Mrs Blair said: “Yes, I am starting to feel like giving up (the B&B) because I just don’t feel safe here anymore and I’ve had to put in more and more locks. If I go out to put washing on the line I have to lock the back door. It’s a sad situation.
“The police are not doing their job and I think there should be a bit more effort. They should have CCTV in all streets. They (police officers) have told me there is a “dummy” camera in Ness Walk. I asked police to put in CCTV and they told me it was the council’s responsibility. But the council said it was not viable.”
Yesterday a Highland Council spokeswoman said the issue was a police matter. However, police were unable to provide comment on any of the matters raised yesterday.
Mrs Blair said she recalled a total of four incidents where handbags were stolen from inside her guesthouse in the last 17 years.
On another occasion in August 2016, someone entered her property and stole Mrs Blair’s and her cleaner’s handbags from the kitchen while she was outside hanging up washing.
Mrs Blair was also in her kitchen moments before catching a woman stealing a pile of her husband’s cash from the office. The woman claimed she was looking for a room before police attended and emptied money from her pockets.