A thief walked into a DIY shop and stole £20 worth of items.

But the culprit did not realise that the shop owners also run a security firm — and operate a top-of-the-range camera system, costing thousands of pounds.

Bosses of Village DIY in Church Street, Little Lever, have now released footage of the incident and police are urging anyone who knows the suspect to get in touch.

The incident happened at 3.50pm on Thursday, January 30, as a member of staff had his back turned, dealing with a customer.

A man can be seen on the video casually looking at items on display and, on four occasions, he picks up items and puts them in his pocket before leaving.

He took bolts, insulation tape and damp crystals.

Shop owner Ismail Bargit, who also runs Atom Security, said: “I have been running this shop for seven years and I have never seen anything like it. We put the CCTV footage on Facebook and people have been coming in to say the man is definitely local.

“Someone saw him getting on a bus in Little Lever the morning after this happened and I have seen him before.”

Mr Bargit added: “It’s not so much the value of the items he took, it’s the principle that he has come into the shop and taken goods from us.

“We would like him to come forward to the police.”

A police spokesman said: “We would like people to take a look at this man and contact us on 101 if you know who it is.”