On Remembrance Sunday, November 11th while many people were preparing to mark the First Armistice which ended the First World War, thieve were taking six ceramic poppies from the display at Ross Garden Store.

Alison from Ross Garden Store told the Ross Gazette that the poppies were part of the display they had created at the entrance to the garden centre to honour those whole did not return from WWI. There was a Silent Soldier at the centre of the display and the ceramic poppies were placed around it. She said some poppies were sold to people creating their own displays but these were then replace.

She told the Gazette that sometime between closing time on Saturday, November 10th and 10am on Sunday, November 11th the poppies were taken.

She said that the thieves would have had to use considerable force so it was unlikely to be children.

She said: “It is so sad that, at a time when the community was really pulling together to mark Remembrance, this happened, it is so disrespectful.”

Alison added that the poppies cost about £12 each but it is not the value of what was taken but that thoughts that someone could do this on that day of all days.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.