Leo's Play Centre in Newark put up for sale after the premises were broken into yet again on Saturday night
After a series of devastating break-ins, the owners of a popular Newark children's play centre are putting the business up for sale.
Tracy and Paul Benson, who run Leo's Play Centre on Northgate, are calling it a day after the premises were broken into for the fourth time in their nine year tenure, and just weeks after the last burglary.
The team managed to tidy up the mess from Saturday night's burglary and clear up the damage to open as usual, but Tracy said they felt so disheartened.
She said the decision to sell-up had not been made lightly, but the stress was just becoming too much for the couple, who also foster children on top of running Leo's.
She said: "We've just had enough.
"It's only been a month since we were broken into before.
"It's so disheartening and it has been making me feel sick when we come into work, wondering what we're going to find.
"Whoever did this didn't take anything because we never leave anything on the premises.
"What were they going to take from us, our cupcakes?"
Despite taking the heavy-hearted decision to put the business up for sale, Tracy said the couple had taken comfort from the dozens of kind messages from well-wishers.
"We've had so many lovely messages from people saying how sad they are that this has happened to us, which makes us feel better but this latest break-in has really got us down," she said.
"We're not a big corporate business. We're just doing this for the kids and we've put our heart and soul into the business to put a smile on people's faces.
That's all we've ever wanted to do."
Customers have been assured that all bookings for parties will be honoured.
Tracy said: "We're still honouring all our events and the birthday parties we've got booked in, you only have one birthday a year and we won't be cancelling any parties just because someone has done this, that's not fair to any one."
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