The north’s senior policeman has said he is hopeful of tracking down thieves who ransacked two shops in a tiny island community.
Residents on Canna were left devastated after hundreds of pounds worth of goods, including biscuits, coffee, sweets and woolly hats from the island’s shops.
North divisional police commander Chief Superintendent Julian Innes confirmed that nobody had been caught in connection with the thefts – and compared the incidents with a similar island break-in last month.
He said: “We haven’t caught anybody yet. Hopefully we will.
“It’s really disappointing for a rural community like Canna that something like that should happen.
“We’ve had two instances like that which have been unusual in the last few months.
“We had Canna where somebody has effectively stolen from an honesty shop and the airport in Barra too was broken into.
“I don’t believe that the two were linked but it’s really disappointing behaviour.
“I really don’t think it will be local people because local people will not conduct themselves in that manner.
“The chances are that it was a visitor to Barra who broke into the airport and a visitor to Canna and we will actively pursue those responsible.”
The main shop on Canna, which operates an honesty box policy, was cleaned out earlier this month – and another business which sells crafts was also hit at the same time.
Both were left unlocked 24 hours a day, with visitors expected to leave money behind for their goods.
Mr Innes said that police are now trying to track down anyone who might have been visiting the island at the time of the thefts.
He said: “The amount of visitors to the island over the period of the theft is limited so we know some of them.
“We just have to get hold of them first of all and find out what they were doing.
“That way we can rule them out or rule them in.”