(Picture Centre Press)

A tiny Scottish island has been hit by its first criminal offence in 50 years – a woolly hat heist.

The community store in Canna in the Inner Hebrides was ransacked by a thief last Friday.

It has been run on an honesty basis for two years with customers noting down the groceries and items they buy and leaving payment in a box.

The store is even left open overnight to allow fishermen using the nearby pier to get what they need at any time.


But when volunteer staff checked on the shop on Saturday morning, they found the shelves had been emptied of sweets, biscuits, coffee, toiletries, batteries and six hand-knitted wool hats.



Canna has a population of 20 people and its last crime was the theft of a carved wooden plate from a church sometime in the 1960s.

Councillor Bill Clark, who has represented the area for 13 years, said: ‘It’s quite unbelievable, it’s something you don’t hear about at all in the Inner Isles. I doubt very much if anyone even locks their doors there.’ Police officers on the mainland are investigating.