THIEVES carried out an early-morning raid on Smallfield's Co-op – exactly one month after the shop was last hit.
The gang broke in through a rear door store shortly after midnight on Friday.
They raided the cigarette counter, stealing more than £3,000 worth of stock, and made off before police arrived.
It is the second such raid at the Redehall Road store in a month and follows two other similar raids there in the last 20 months.
As the village reeled at news of the raid, staff at the store were determined not to be affected.
Supervisor Muzza Zawahir said: "Staff are keeping going like nothing happened.
"Every single customer is asking what happened, they are shocked.
"But the customers are still coming in; this is the only shop like this in the village."
A member of the public heard the intruders and alerted police.
But despite alarms going off, store staff did not discover the robbery until they arrived for work.
"I arrived to open up," Mr Zawahir said.
"The greengrocers next door told me we had been burgled.
"I couldn't see it at first then I went round the back and found the police note."
Exactly one month previously a gang broke in through the front of the store and stole an unknown quantity of cigarettes.
Both raids have been carried out with impressive speed.
In February, CCTV showed the thieves were in and out of the shop within four minutes, and on Friday the theft took seven minutes.
Eileen Sowter, whose house backs on to the store, said: "They must have done it very quickly; we didn't hear a thing as it happened.
"They seem to know what they are after for it to happen more than once; it doesn't concern us but you don't expect it in this village."
Steel shutters were installed on the shopfront following last month's break-in and the store is now putting similar measures in place on all other doors and windows.
Coupled with the earlier raids in July and October 2011 – where robbers forced entry to the store and stole cigarettes and cash – the raids have cost Co-op around £15,000 in lost merchandise alone.
The succession of robberies has put nearby shop owners on edge.
Philip Munday, who manages the Post Office across the road, has improved security and locks his cigarettes away at night.
"It is frightening really, we feel lucky it hasn't happened here," he said.
"It is hard to see it happening close to where you work. They are in and out so quickly; it is quite scary."
Sandra Ashby at Gordon's Greengrocers, which is next to the Co-op, agreed.
She told the Mirror: "It is amazing that it is always them.
"It is a shame because so many people come to use the shop. I don't know how much longer this can go on."
Contact Surrey Police on 101 with information quoting reference TD/13/1201 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
