Three men have been arrested after stolen hand wash and toilet paper were discovered in a van by police.

Essex Police's operational support group tweeted: "Police officers always get a massive sense of satisfaction when we catch burglars, however we never expected to find this stolen loot in the boot.

Using the hashtag "ThatsHowWeRoll", it added: "Stolen items recovered and 3 arrested all within an hour of it being reported."

Image: Three people have been arrested following the discovery. Pic: Essex OSG/Twitter

The force said the men were detained within 30 minutes of officers receiving a call at around 10.20pm on Friday about suspicious activity in Hatfield Peverel and a vehicle being driven through a barrier at a building site in Bury Lane.

Officers managed to spot the van on the A13 before stopping it in South Ockendon at around 10.50pm.


Inside it were stolen items including hand wash and dozens of packs of toilet rolls, said the force.

A 28-year-old man from Aveley, a 37-year-old man from South Ockendon and a 41-year-old man from Purfleet remain in custody on suspicion of theft of a vehicle and burglary.

There has been widespread panic buying due to the coronavirus pandemic with toilet paper among the many items being stripped off supermarket shelves.

It has led water companies to issue warnings about blocked sewers because those left without are being forced to use alternatives such as wet wipes, kitchen roll and newspaper, and are disposing of them incorrectly.

Northumbrian Water said it understood people were "only improvising", but the consequences could be "devastating" to homes and the environment.

Water companies say if there is no other option, wipes and kitchen roll should be disposed of in the bin.

South West Water recently tweeted: "Let's work together. Please don't flush kitchen roll, wet wipes or newspaper down the loo as these can cause major blockages in our sewers.

"Only flush the #3Ps - pee, paper and poo. Anything else, throw in the bin."

Sainsbury's is following other supermarkets by introducing a shopping hour for NHS and social care workers.

From next week, they will be able to go in between 8am and 9am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, alongside elderly and vulnerable shoppers.

Supermarkets are now restricting purchases across a wide range of products as they step up their efforts to combat panic buying.

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Tesco and Sainsbury's are telling customers they can only buy three of any grocery item while they are also shutting fresh food counters.

Asda is taking similar action and Morrisons is limiting purchases across 1,250 lines.

There are more than 4,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and 177 people have died after contracting the virus.