The incident happened at around 2.40am with police arriving at the scene just before 4.30am.

Spotlight store manager Jasmin Botham said a car was reversed into the front entrance.

"They broke in and they stole Manchester merchandise," she said.

"I just waited for the police to finish, and once they were done we came in and reviewed the footage and saw exactly what happened. It was all cordoned off and we had a security guard there until the doors were all fixed and secured."

The store has been closed for walk-in business since the latest lockdown began, but has been operating for click and collect service.

"So in that aspect it hasn't really affected us too much because there weren't going to be any customers coming through anyway, so we've just started using one of our other exits for click and collect," Mrs Botham added.

"It was stupid of them to do it at the time they did it because we're in the middle of a lockdown and there's no cash on the premises."

Central West Police District Chief Inspector Peter Atkins confirmed they are conducting an investigation into the ram-raid.

"At 4.20am Thursday morning we attended a shop in the Homemaker Centre at Orange," he said.

"The front doors had been destroyed by a vehicle which was no longer there.

"It appears that a suspected stolen vehicle from Bathurst had driven through the front doors and some property was stolen."

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