At 11.53am on 6 October 2026, Jayne’s Baby Bank posted: “We have not broken into the shop the entrance was open.”
The photograph she posted with it shows the doorway of 6 Commercial Street, Pontypool: a splintered panel lying in the entrance, and broken wood on the step.
Earlier that morning, police had gone into the shop and she had come out. At 7.36am a witness had photographed her son at the shop door with a drill. She told officers, a witness heard, that the landlord was letting her in and out. The landlord says that while the officers were at the shop they phoned him, and he told them she had no permission to be there. The police let them go.
It was the second time in 21 days that police had been called to the shop. On 15 September the landlord took it back. His notice in the window told Carrie-Anne Ridsdale that she “must not enter, attempt to enter, or arrange for any other person to enter the premises without the Landlord’s prior express permission”, and gave her 21 days to collect her stock by appointment. The 21 days ran out on 6 October.
New to this story? Jayne’s Baby Bank is run by Carrie-Anne Ridsdale, who trades publicly as Jayne Price. It has never been a registered charity. Her lease on 6 Commercial Street, signed in her own name, ran for one year and ended on 26 October 2025 (our report on the lease). The landlord took the shop back on 15 September 2026 (our report that day).
The short version
- On 15 September the landlord took back 6 Commercial Street. His notice says she must not enter without his “prior express permission”, and gave her 21 days to collect her stock “by appointment only”.
- That night, witnesses saw her at the shop. Police were called. By the time they arrived, she had gone.
- Less than two hours later she went live on Facebook: “Oh, evening guys. I’ve been filling up another community library box that we’ve got.”
- Three days after the notice, she wrote that the landlords had “resumed possession”. Since then she has said they are “obstructive” and must, by law, let her collect her stock.
- On 26 September, complaining that the landlords had not let her in, she said: “If I want to get back in, I’m going to go through the bloody holes in the roof, for Christ’s sake.”
- The second time was on Tuesday 6 October 2026, the last of the 21 days. At 7.36am a witness photographed her son, Dan, at the shop door with a drill. Police arrived just before 8am, a witness reported wood missing from the bottom of the door, officers went in, and she came out.
- She was then photographed outside the front of the shop with a police officer, the landlord’s notice still taped in the window behind them.
- A witness heard her say that she had spoken to the landlord and was being let in and out of the shop. The police let them go. At 8.57am she and her son left together in her car.
- The landlord told us that when the police phoned him from the shop, he made it clear that no permission had been given. “Clearly she was lying,” he said.
- At 11.53am she posted: “We have not broken into the shop the entrance was open.” The photograph she posted with it shows a splintered panel in the doorway. The same post says “We are the legal tenants of 6 commercial street temporarily”: her lease ended in October 2025.
Timeline: 15 September to 6 October
- 26 October 2025: her one-year lease on 6 Commercial Street ends.
- 15 September 2026, morning: the landlord takes the building back. His notice in the window gives her 21 days to collect her stock, by appointment.
- 15 September, about 11pm: we are alerted that someone is trying to get into the shop. Witnesses see her there. Police are called; by the time they arrive, she has gone.
- 16 September, 00:53: she goes live on Facebook: “Oh, evening guys. I’ve been filling up another community library box that we’ve got.”
- 18 September: she writes that the landlords “have resumed possession of Pontypool Shops”.
- 24 September: she says the landlords are “being obstructive” about access.
- 26 September: “If I want to get back in, I’m going to go through the bloody holes in the roof, for Christ’s sake.”
- 4 October: she appeals for shopping bags, boxes and bubble wrap.
- 6 October, after midnight: a member of the public driving through Pontypool posts that she is outside the shop, and police are there.
- 6 October, 7.36am: a witness photographs her son, Dan, at the shop door with a drill. Her car is parked at the door.
- Just before 8am: police arrive. A witness reports wood missing from the bottom of the door. Officers go in, and she comes out.
- 8.28am: the witness tells us they heard her say she had spoken to the landlord and was being let in and out of the shop.
- While officers are at the shop: they phone the landlord. He tells them no permission has been given (his account to us).
- Before 8.50am: she is photographed outside the front of the shop with a police officer, the landlord’s notice still in the window.
- 8.50am: she gets into her car, with a police officer nearby.
- 8.57am: her son gets in, and they leave. The police let them go.
- 11.53am: she posts: “We have not broken into the shop the entrance was open.” With it, a photograph of the doorway: a splintered panel lying in the entrance. She says she will “re arrange another clearence day”.
- 6 October: the last of the 21 days.
The notice in the window
The lease on 6 Commercial Street ran for one year from 27 October 2024. It ended on 26 October 2025. On the morning of 15 September 2026 the landlord took the building back and taped a two-page Formal Notice inside the window. It begins “Dear Ms Ridsdale”.
Clause 2 is headed “No unauthorised access”. It spells out what that means, from “forcing or attempting to force entry” to “interfering with, bypassing or damaging the locks or security arrangements”, and ends with a warning: “The Landlord reserves the right, where appropriate, to notify the police and/or take appropriate legal action”.
Clause 4 deals with her stock. She was “given 21 days from the date of this notice” to contact the landlord’s representative and arrange to collect it. Any collection had to be “arranged in advance”, “by appointment only” and “carried out only with the Landlord’s express permission”. Then:
“You must not attend the premises independently or attempt to gain access for the purpose of collecting property.”
The landlord’s notice, clause 4, 15 September 2026
Twenty-one days from 15 September is 6 October.
The first night: 15 September
Around 11pm on the night the notice went up, we were alerted that someone was trying to get into the shop.
Witnesses reported seeing Carrie-Anne Ridsdale at 6 Commercial Street, in a blue Nissan Leaf.
Police were called. By the time officers arrived, she had gone.
We have viewed CCTV footage of the premises from that night, which is consistent with that account. We are not publishing it. We first reported the night in our 17 September update.
Less than two hours after she was seen, she went live on Facebook. These are its opening lines:
“Oh, evening guys. I’ve been filling up another community library box that we’ve got. Yeah, there was books out of there. Not as much as the other one. The other one’s gone really well.”
Her livestream, posted at 00:53 on 16 September 2026
It said nothing about the notice, or about being at the shop that night. Of the shop itself, she said: “So where we’re at now is P2. I think we’re going to have to move out.”
What she said in the 21 days
Over the next three weeks she told her followers that the shops were the landlords’ now, and that she was being kept out of them.
- 16 September: “that’s why we have been in there packing it up and taking my time to make sure it’s all packed tidy.”
- 17 September: “I’m now leaseless and footloose and fancy free to do what I like.”
- 18 September: “as the landlords have resumed possession of Pontypool Shops so they are now responsible for the shops as a whole.”
- 21 September: “They can put up as many signs as they like in the windows.”
- 24 September: “we are trying to arrange access with the both landlords and they are being obstructive.” She added that she had “updated their solicitor/council and the police.”
- 26 September, in a video: “We went over to [Pontypool] shop today to start removing stuff from the one and they didn’t turn up.” And: “by law they’re supposed to give us access to remove our stuff.”
- 28 September: “Can I remind landlords If you fail to give access under Tort Law and criminal law then we can charge you for the remainder of our property.”
- 4 October: “Desperate for bags and shopping bags please guys”. Minutes later: “We need good card board boxes and plastic boxes please and bubble wrap”.
The notice set out how she could collect her stock: by contacting the landlord’s representative, by appointment, with the landlord’s express permission. The landlord says no such permission was given.
“Through the bloody holes in the roof”
In the same 26 September video, after complaining that the landlords had not let her in, she said:
“You know, because like I said, we don’t want to keep their shops […] If I want to get back in, I’m going to go through the bloody holes in the roof, for Christ’s sake.”
Her video, 26 September 2026 (from a speech-to-text transcript)
The roof is one she had complained about for months. On 15 September, the day the notice went up, she posted photographs of the Pontypool shops captioned: “More holes in the roof is the other videos and pigeons.”
The second night
The second time was on Tuesday 6 October 2026, the last of the 21 days.
After midnight, a member of the Jayne’s Baby Bank Exposed group, driving through Pontypool “after a late macdonalds trip”, posted that “jayne was outside the shop and police was there to”.
7.36am: a drill at the door
At 7.36am a witness photographed a man at the shop door, reaching up to the top of it. The witness told us it was her son, Dan, and that he had a drill.
Dan is her son. In her own words: “Me and my son Dan, started the baby bank and foodbank from our driveway in 2020.”
Parked at the door is her car, a dark blue Nissan Leaf: the make and colour of car that witnesses described on 15 September.
Just before 8am: the police
Just before 8am a member of the group wrote that “the police just rocked up there”. Minutes later, another:
“Wood missing from the bottom of the door and police entered. She came out immediately.”
Comment in the Jayne’s Baby Bank Exposed group
A photograph sent to us shows her outside the front of the shop with a police officer on the morning of Tuesday 6 October 2026. The landlord’s notice is still taped in the window behind them.
Three weeks after a notice that told her not to “attend the premises independently”, she was inside. Her own post says they had come “ready to clear the shop”.
What she told the police
The witness who photographed the drill was close enough to hear her. At 8.28am they told us they had heard her saying “she has spoken to landlord they are letting her in and out of shop”. Their impression was that she had convinced the officers she was allowed to be there.
At 8.50am, a member of the group wrote, she got into her car: “Passenger door open and police officer near”. At 8.57: “Dan entered car and they’ve left”. The police let them go.
Her account to the officers sits beside her own words in the three weeks before. The landlords were “being obstructive” (24 September). “We went over to [Pontypool] shop today to start removing stuff from the one and they didn’t turn up” (26 September). “Can I remind landlords If you fail to give access […] we can charge you for the remainder of our property” (28 September). And the notice allowed collection only “by appointment”, “with the Landlord’s express permission”.
The landlord’s answer is below.
What the landlord says
The landlord replied to us on 6 October. He told us the police phoned him while they were at the shop:
“[The] police personally called me while they were on the scene. I made it absolutely clear Neither I nor [the landlord of 5 Crane Street] had given Carrie-Anne Ridsdale permission to enter 6 Commercial Street, nor had we given her permission to access any other premises in Pontypool.”
The landlord, in an email to us, 6 October 2026
5 Crane Street is the shop next door. The two were knocked through into one, and its landlord took it back on 15 August 2026.
He added: “There was no written agreement or authorisation permitting her to enter the premises.” Any access, he said, would also have had to follow Environmental Health’s recommendations, “including the use of appropriate protective equipment such as face masks, gloves and approved paper overalls.”
On how the shop was entered, he wrote: “My understanding is that access to the premises was obtained by forcing/breaking the secured door. This was not ordinary authorised access to the property.”
And on what she told the officers: “I was therefore surprised to learn that she allegedly told police that she had permission to be at the premises while I was on the phone with the police. I did not provide such permission, and I made that position clear while I was speaking with the police.” His conclusion: “Clearly she was lying.”
So there are two accounts of the same morning. Hers, as a witness heard it: that she had spoken to the landlord and was being let in and out of the shop. And his, given to the officers on the phone while they were there: that no such permission had been given. Both cannot be true.
Her post at 11.53am, against the record
At 11.53am, three hours after she and her son drove away, her page posted this (our archived copy):
The rest of the post blames a woman she names, a member of the public, for “kicking off”, and ends: “we have gone off to lunch and will re arrange another clearence day”.
What she says, and what the record shows
- “We are the legal tenants of 6 commercial street temporarily.” Her one-year lease ended on 26 October 2025. The landlord’s notice of 15 September names her as “Former Tenant”.
- “No legal and lawful eviction has ever take place in either shop.” On 18 September she wrote that “the landlords have resumed possession of Pontypool Shops”.
- “The landlord has not turned up for the past week as arranged.” The landlord says that neither he nor the landlord of 5 Crane Street had given her permission to enter, and that “There was no written agreement or authorisation permitting her to enter the premises.” That morning, a witness heard her tell officers the landlord was letting her in and out.
- “The window was hanging off and about to fall on members of the public and Dan fixed it.” At 7.36am, before the police came, a witness photographed her son reaching up to the top of the shop door. The witness says he was using a drill.
- “We have not broken into the shop the entrance was open.” A witness reported “Wood missing from the bottom of the door” when officers went in. The photograph she posted shows a splintered panel lying in the entrance. The landlord’s understanding is that the secured door was forced: “This was not ordinary authorised access to the property.”
Her post and the record cannot both be true.
What we do not know
As we publish, we do not know:
- whether the police will take any further action, after either night;
- whether anything was taken from the shop;
- how long she had been inside;
- exactly how and when the bottom of the door was broken.
Nothing in this report suggests that anyone has been charged with any offence.
How we know. The notice is quoted from photographs of it in the shop window on 15 September 2026, published in our report that day. Her words are quoted as published on her page; quotations from videos come from speech-to-text transcripts. The account of 15 September is our own reporting, from witnesses and CCTV footage we have viewed and are not publishing. The posts about the second night were made in the Jayne’s Baby Bank Exposed group; we have hidden members’ names. Times are those members gave, or are worked out from when their posts went up. One witness also sent us a message and a photograph (7.36am); we quote the message. The other photograph was sent to us. We have blurred the number plates. Her post of 6 October is quoted as published; we hold an archived copy.
“The Welsh Charity Shop Hoax: Exposed!” is a public interest project examining the public claims and activities of Jayne’s Baby Bank. Factual statements are supported by evidence where available, and opinions are identified as such. Nothing on this site should be interpreted as a legal finding or legal advice.
…Sherlock