TEENAGE girls who entered a pet shop in High Street, Wellington, left the shop’s female owner feeling so threatened she twice dialled 999 to call police.

Carol Beaney, of Paws and Claws, said the incident began when she saw the girls walk past her shop throwing pieces of cauliflower in the air.

“I think they had taken it from greengrocer Mary Jenkins a few doors down,” she said. “Me, being a mother, asked them to pick the bits up and I got a torrent of abuse.”

Carol, 53, said the girls walked off but soon after she heard a thud when the cauliflower was thrown and landed outside her shop.

She added: “I was on my own, so I was extremely vulnerable. I rang 999 but it took the police more than an hour to arrive.”

The incident had started at about 2pm but later continued after the girls refused to get into a car sent to collect them from an out of town educational establishment.

PCSO Steve Hills told Carol police would monitor the girls’ movements around town on CCTV but at about 4.45pm the girls reappeared.

Carol added: “I rang my daughter Rachel and asked her to come down and meet me at the end of the day. We knew the girls were still around town and they came back in the shop.

“They stood in front of me and one of them said ‘shows the police don’t give a f*** about your little business, doesn’t it – they’ve gone and left us here.

“I just ignored them, I thought it’s the best way. Then one of them picks up the charity box and says ‘we’ll have that away – oh f*** it’s tethered, we cant’t.

“They pick up a jar of honey and I’m thinking ‘please don’t do anything with that’ but because they didn’t get a reaction from me, they put it back down again. Then they picked up an egg and as they walked out they threw it up at a sign outside the door.

“While they were still here I phoned the police on 999 and Steve Hills phoned to check on me.”

Carol said that after leaving the shop with her daughter, and as they chatted to someone in nearby Clifford Terrace, she saw the girls again but they did not see her as it was dark.

Carol said the girls looked about 16 but said police later told her they were 13. Carol, who lives in Burlescombe after moving from Sussex, said she has had the shop six years and never encountered any similar problems before. She added: “I would like to thank the people who stayed with me while the incident was taking place – it was appreciated.”