BURGLARS forced their way into lonely drinker Jack Hammond's favourite watering hole to steal charity cash afterhours - just days after Jack's appeal for pub buddies was highlighted in the Daily Echo.

The culprits smashed a window to get inside the Compass Inn, in Winsor, then made a beeline for the oversized Bell's whisky bottle.

But it wasn't a tipple they were after. The glass bottle contained about £600 in coins. The burglars used bolt-croppers to cut the chain that fixed the bottle to the bar before fleeing with it.

Landlady Mop Draper, who lives above the pub, was woken by the sound of the window smashing and the burglar alarm going off.

She said: "By the time I got downstairs they had gone, but I could see the chain from the bottle hanging down by the bar.

"I was here on my own, so it was pretty nervewracking. I cannot believe someone would be so mean as to steal a charity collection.

"We had been collecting money for about a year, and the bottle was nearly full. There must have been about £600 inside. It must have taken more than one person to lift it - it was extremely heavy."

The pub hit the national headlines last week after the Daily Echo ran the story of 88-yearold Jack Hammond's search for a drinking pal following his move from Barton on Sea to the Forest Edge Care Home in Cadnam.

As a result the pub was "extraordinarily busy" on Friday evening, the night of the burglary.

The pub was also sent £200 by ITV's This Morning show for people to have a drink with Jack. Some of this was spent last week, but Jack has donated the remaining £130 to a new charity collection at the pub.

The stolen money was due to be donated to the Bibic Centre for brain-injured children in Bridgewater, Somerset.

● Anyone with information should call Hampshire police on 0845 045 4545.