BURGLARS broke into two Reigate town centre shops, and stole hundreds of pounds worth of ketchup, ice cream, chocolate, wine and cash.
The criminals used crowbars to break in to Cullenders delicatessen and Cherry's Dessert Parlour in Bell Street on Sunday night.
After breaking down the door of Cullenders, the intruders stole an iPad, which staff used as a till, and £275 in cash, along with wine and some pallets of Heinz tomato ketchup.
Across the road at Cherry's Dessert Parlour, sticky-fingered thieves stole £169 and £500-worth of chocolate bars.
But in an unusual move, the raiders in Cherry's also ate all the caramel ice cream which was left in the refrigerated display case overnight and did not touch the £4 of staff tips.
Shop owner Sarah Ahmadi was forced to dispose of around £800 worth of ice cream which could have been contaminated during the burglary.
She told the Mirror: "We closed up at night, left the shop, came back in the morning and they had stolen money and broken in through the back window."
She added: "We always leave a certain amount of ice cream in the display tubs overnight and, well, they ate all the caramel.
"The ice cream is not just ice cream, it's Italian gelato and costs me quite a fair bit. I had to throw it all away, £800 of gelato."
She added: "Believe it or not [they stole] chocolate bars too, they went into the back store room and emptied £500 worth of chocolate bars."
Despite their losses, both businesses refused to let the criminals take more from them and Cherry's was re-open for business on Monday, while Cullenders opened on Tuesday once the front door had been repaired.
There was an outpouring of support for both stores on social media sites.
Marc Cullender, who owns Cullenders with his wife Joelle, said: "It's amazing, we had so many nice messages and the Facebook post was seen by 3,500 people."
He added: "These people just do what they do and we have just got to carry on with it really. It's just an annoyance. We had some skilled carpenters who got the door working again."
Surrey Police confirmed they are investigating two burglaries.
