Last updated 16:04, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

A WOMAN who was tied up and locked in a freight container overnight at Moresby Parks had just a week earlier been the target in a knife point attempted robbery in Preston.

locked in: The container

Three men have been arrested in connection with the latest raid, last Wednesday night at Rexel Senate, Moresby Parks, in which the female delivery driver was tied up and locked in a freight container.

The shocked 53-year-old from Blackburn was found by colleagues the following morning when they returned to work at the Moresby-based electrical wholesalers.

The woman was uninjured but said to be very shocked when found last Thursday morning having spent more than eight hours in the container.

Her distraught family reported her missing on Thursday morning, just minutes after she was found.

It is believed that the masked raiders stole the woman’s keys last Wednesday and used them to access a number of Rexel Senate branches in the North West.

The delivery driver’s van, a white Iveco, was found burnt out in the Lancashire area on Saturday.

The men, all from the Blackpool area, were arrested on suspicion of robbery on Tuesday and taken to Workington police station.

Det Insp Cliff Walker yesterday confirmed that the men were being questioned by detectives. He said the investigation had been assisted by Lancashire Constabulary.

The arrested men are aged 18, 22 and 47.

In the earlier incident, a masked man armed with a knife at a Preston-based Rexel Senate ordered the woman to open a keypad combination locked container. After opening it, the quick-thinking driver got in it, closed the door and telephoned police from her mobile phone.

The raider was left empty-handed in the compound but had fled the scene when police arrived. The woman was uninjured.

The Lancashire Evening Post reported the July 4 incident: “A brave woman delivery driver cleverly tricked a masked robber who threatened her with a knife in Preston.

“After parking up her van at hardware supplier Rexel Senate on Deepdale Mill Street, Deepdale, she was approached by a man wearing a stocking mask over his face at around 1am.

“He threatened the woman, in her 30s, with a knife and tape and ordered her to open up an industrial container using a keypad combination.

“But the driver quickly locked herself in the container and called the police on her mobile phone, leaving him empty-handed in the compound. When officers arrived, he had fled the scene.”