HOTEL guests have praised staff after they were victims of a daring raid on Saturday evening. While most guests were out, between 7.10pm and 10.10pm, thieves broke into one of the store rooms at the Royal Hotel and gained access to four guest rooms with a master key.

Among items stolen were several sets of car keys, cash, mobile phones, wallets containing bank cards, satnav systems, gold jewellery and a pair of binoculars. One guest, a fighter pilot currently based at St Andrews in Scotland, was in Ross for the weekend looking at property. When he arrived back at the Royal, with his family, police were already in attendance. He told the Ross Gazette:?"The thieves had locked the rooms after raiding them, so there was no indication anything had been taken. However, when we got to our room we discovered our passports, camera and cash had been stolen. It was so cheeky it was like a plot from a film such as Ocean's Eleven."

For the full story please see this week's Ross Gazette.