THE SAME thieves broke into a St Albans courier firm twice on Saturday night. The raiders first smashed their way in through the back door of APC Couriers on the Verulam Industrial Estate off London Road at about 11.30pm. Michael Durose, the firm s operat

THE SAME thieves broke into a St Albans courier firm twice on Saturday night.

The raiders first smashed their way in through the back door of APC Couriers on the Verulam Industrial Estate off London Road at about 11.30pm.

Michael Durose, the firm's operations manager, said that the break-in triggered the burglar alarm and the three thieves grabbed handfuls of parcels and ran off.

But they hid nearby until a keyholder had visited the premises and left -- then they returned to grab another haul of parcels.

The thieves left a trail of discarded items across a track that runs beside the neighbouring Verulam golf course.

Contents of the opened parcels, including documents, were strewn across the track and had to be gathered up by police officers the next day.

A police spokesperson said: "We were not called in until the morning when we sent officers out to investigate."

Mr Durose said the firm had recently installed £11,000 worth of CCTV cameras.

He said: "You can quite clearly see three young men wearing hooded jackets so there should be a good chance of catching them."

The firm say all the affected customers will be reimbursed once they have been tracked down.