A WORKER stopped thieves in their tracks when they tried to steal a cash machine from outside a Northwich supermarket on Friday evening.

Two men attacked the machine outside Waitrose, forcing open the front, attaching a chain to the machine and attempting to tow it off with a small white van.

The pair fled when they were disturbed by a member of staff from Waitrose, which opened at Hayhurst Quay two months ago.

Peter Gibbs, branch manager, said: “One of our partners was in the area, he spotted them and they cleared off.”

He added: “He came out, saw them, came to see what was going on and some words were exchanged.”

Mr Gibbs said two of his duty managers were soon on the scene, as well as police officers.

“We have shared CCTV with police and they are investigating,” he said.

“The only disruption for us is that the cash machine is now out of order so there’s a slight inconvenience to customers, but we do provide a cashback service.

“We will get it fixed and working as soon as possible.

“It’s just not a very pleasant thing to happen.

“We’re so proud of this store so anyone who tries to do anything to it is going to cause some upset.

“But fortunately no-one was hurt and damage was minimal.

“We’ve been trading as normal and are fully operational.”

The incident happened at 10.40pm on Friday, January 17, and police said the white van was possibly a Citroen Berlingo.

Anyone with any information should ring Cheshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 1008 17/1/14, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.