Sheffield takeaway owner puts store on lockdown after fight breaks out

The owner and one of his staff at Mr Pizza, on Gleadless Road, in Heeley, bravely locked the shutters and stood by the door to keep everyone inside after violence flared.

The CCTV footage appears to show seven males – some of whom look to be aged under 18 – involved in a brawl within the premises.

Punches are thrown during the fight, which the owner said happened on Sunday, October 6, at around 5.30pm, and at one point a table is hurled across the room.

Two police officers arrive but those inside manage to escape, and the frustrated restaurateur says nobody has yet been arrested.

That means he is being left to foot the bill to repair the front window, which was smashed during the melee.

The owner, who asked not to be named, said it was the latest in a series of break-ins and fights in which the store has been damaged, yet no one is ever caught.

In March this year, burglars raided the takeaway which he has run for 15 years and stole, among other things, a charity box collecting money to help children with cancer.

“We’re just a small business and if people keep causing trouble it makes life really difficult and leaves me wondering whether I should just walk away,” he said.

“This time, I put myself in danger to detain them in the shop after the window was smashed.

“I was on the phone to police for half an hour, after dialling 999 – and during that time all the pizzas burned in the oven, and customers couldn’t get through on the phone – but when the officers turned up they let them get away too easily.

“Before the officers arrived, one of the guys was begging me not to call police, and he was promising to pay for the damage himself.

“Watching the video back I’m thinking I shouldn’t have done that because I was putting myself in danger but I felt I had to do something at the time.

“We can’t just keep claiming on insurance because if you do that the insurance bill keeps going up.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident number 740 of October 6.