A HAIR salon manager says she is living a “nightmare” after being the victim of a Valentine’s Day break-in.

The Cutting Shed, in Weavers Court, Halstead, was broken into after midnight last Thursday.

CCTV footage shows two boys and a girl look at the window of the salon before smashing it with a brick and climbing inside.

The till, worth £400 and containing between £40 and £100 in cash, was thrown from the window and stolen during the break-in.

Salon manager Melissa Stoker, 37, said there have been problems with anti-social behaviour around Weavers Court for about a year now.

“It’s been a nightmare,” she said.

“I’m not going to let this drop – it’s not a minor crime to us.

“If you ask any shop around here about the issues as a whole they will all agree it’s got out of hand.

“It’s the next step of the escalation and they are unstoppable now.” A neighbour saw the events unfold from their window and contacted the police.

Miss Stoker said she doesn’t know where to go from here, but is keen to put in more security measures.

She has been round to other shops in the area to look at their CCTV.

From doing that she was able to piece together the route the raiders took, finding broken pieces of what she believed to be the till along the way.

A member of the public found a till thought to be the one stolen from the Cutting Shed.

It was later recovered by the police.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We were called to reports of a burglary at the Cutting Shed in Weavers Court, Halstead, just after 12.40am on February 14.

“The till, with an unknown amount of money inside, was removed from the building.

“Inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call the Braintree local policing team on 101 quoting incident number 42/24421/19.”