DEDICATED police patrols are now monitoring nurseries in Southampton after two more were targeted by thieves.

St James Nursery and Pre-School has been broken into, which has been targeted before, as did the Paint Pots at St Mark’s Church of England Primary School in Stafford Road.

This is the seventh attack on the Paint Pots nursery group in 2016, having already had four of their other nurseries across Southampton broken into multiple times.

In one callous act after breaking into a Paint Pots nursery, the burglars urinated on cots used by babies and in the boiler room before turning the heat up full blast.

Now police have assigned dedicated patrols to try and crack down on the crime wave of nursery break ins across the city.

Natasha Li, the owner of St James Nursery and Pre-School, discovered the break in, which resulted in a mere £5 being taken.

She said: “I came to work through the playground area and could see instantly that we had been broken into again.

“We don’t leave any cash here overnight and we have signs in the front of the nursery saying no cash is left here and they were looking for cash or anything of value.

“I think because a few weeks had gone by I was not thinking about it and started to get back to normal.

“I do understand it was a bank holiday but I waited there for the police for five hours.”

The burglars also struck the Paint Pots Nursery over the Bank Holiday weekend, stealing electronics and Easter eggs.

Anna Wright, who owns the nursery group with her husband David and their son Joe, said: “I don’t know if I believe in this many coincidences, it is a lot of coincidences.

“They stole all the Easter egg chocolate, which is a bit sad when parents gave that to the nursery as a thank you.

“I started to relax a bit but now we know the break ins have not stopped.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire police said: “Police are investigating two burglaries at pre-schools in the Southampton area that occurred over the bank holiday weekend.

“We are aware that several nurseries in the Southampton area have been broken into in the last couple of months, some multiple times. Each incident is taken seriously and all lines of enquiry explored.

“We want to reassure the public that we have dedicated patrol teams focussing on affected areas.

“We would ask anyone with information about these burglaries to get in contact with us via 101 and quote either 44160119583 for the incident at St James Park Road nursery or 44160120416 for the incident at St Marks C of E School. If you have a business and are concerned about security we would always suggest removing any valuable items where possible and consider fitting an alarm and/OR CCTV.”