THUGS smashed their way into a family centre and stole two valuable laptop computers.

They used a baseball bat to smash the ground floor window of the site’s office in Raby Park Road, Neston, at 6.02am on Wednesday.

Once inside, they forced open cupboards and filing cabinets, making an untidy search.

In a separate offence, thieves smashed a small pane of glass in a window at John Street Primary School in Ellesmere Port on the night of November 17, before stealing two flat screen computer monitors.