BURGLARS who inflicted thousands of pounds worth of damage on a shop spent hours forcing their way in and barricaded nearby flats to make sure no one intervened.

Furious managers of games and electrical goods store PlayFX, in Hanover Street, Keighley, suspect the criminals exploited a family bereavement and deliberately targeted the shop at a time when they knew its owners would be distracted.

Shop manager Nick Hall said the grandmother of the shop's owner, Shazaib Hassan, had recently died which meant the shop was closed for a few days.

He said the burglars, who got into the shop shortly after 2.30am on Tuesday, February 2, were on the scene outside from about midnight, and included three lookouts as well as the two who forced their way in.

Mr Hall, who lives in Long Lee, said the value of the goods stolen and the damage done to the back of the building approached £10,000.

"We're just a small, local business working hard to make a living and little scumbags like this who can't be bothered to work make their money by doing this," he said.

"It just drives me up the wall. It's not like we're some multi-million pound corporation."

He said the masked and hooded raiders had used pallets stolen from outside another nearby business to block the exit of flats immediately behind PlayFX to stop anyone disturbing them while they broke in.

Once they had got in through the back of the shop they spent only 35 seconds inside, sweeping 50 smart phones into a white bucket then leaving.

Mr Hall said nothing else in the shop was touched, suggesting the burglars knew exactly what they wanted from the start.

"It's not just the break-in, it's the fact that they endangered the lives of people living in the flats behind us," he said. "What if there had been a fire and people needed to get out?

"Local businesses here have been very supportive of us since the burglary, which we really appreciate.

"We've now completely blocked up the back of our shop, so there's no way in there anymore, and we've passed CCTV footage onto the police."

The owners of PlayFX are offering a cash reward to anyone who can supply police with information on the burglary leading to conviction.

They also say people should inform the police about anyone trying to informally sell suspiciously large numbers of iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c or Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smart phones.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police appealed for witnesses to get in touch with officers on the 101 number, quoting reference 13160047184.

She added that two people had entered the shop early last Tuesday morning. "During the burglary mobile phones were stolen," she said. "The two then made off down a snicket and onto a retail park off Cavendish Street."

PC Alan Askew said: "I would urge anyone who saw this incident or who is offered a mobile phone for sale in a deal that sounds ‘too good to be true’ to get in contact."