The York Gin shop on Pavement in the city centre has had two of its windows smashed by a thief who only made off with three bottles of water.

None of the display bottles in the shop contain gin - and signs are prominently displayed. The attack happened just before midnight on Tuesday night. 

As Thomas Herbert’s House is a Grade 1 Listed building and needs specially shaped glass, the window cannot be fixed before the Residents Festival, which takes place this Saturday and Sunday.

The iconic Tudor building dating back the 16th Century is owned by York Conservation Trust. 

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York Gin began selling gin there in 2019. Until several years prior to that, the building was best known for containing Jones the Bootmaker.

The venue was crowned Best Shop in the Visit York Tourism Awards last year, the third time it has won.

The York Gin team have asked people to continue to come along and enjoy their three offers including a free Dry January mulled drink, a free mini with every £30 order and extra discounts on bottle refills. 

Retail Manager Jenny O’Hara had just created a new ‘We Love York’ window display on Monday. 

Jenny said: “We certainly don’t love what’s happened. The upset and inconvenience caused by this act of stupidity is amazing. We do make it clear that none of our display bottles in either of our shops contains gin. So the person responsible for this has got away with three bottles of water.”

York Press: The smashed left window

She added: “We’ve had excellent support from our partners, York’s Eboracum Security who increased their overnight patrols  And the police have been brilliant and secured the windows immediately.

No-one was hurt during the incident.

Last summer, York Gin suffered a major break-in at their distillery in Poppleton, when ‘thousands’ of miniature and full-sized bottles of gin were stolen.

The value of the stolen gin was estimated to be ‘six figures’, with the theft delaying orders as stocks had to be replenished with new gin, which also had to be bottled and labelled.

The June 25-26 break-in followed a similar theft at another North Yorkshire distillery.

North Yorkshire Police have confirmed the latest burglary took place at around 11pm on Tuesday night.

A police statement said: “A man smashed the window of the store and he took three bottles from a display. The bottles actually contained only water.”

Witnesses or anyone with any information are asked to email harl.pattison@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101, select option 2, and ask for Harl Pattison.

If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

People are asked to quote reference number 12240014097 when providing details.