LATE-night shop floor duty is "scary'', says a store manager whose life has been threatened.

When Rob McKenzie, assistant manager of the Kwik Save store in Eston, caught vandals covering the shop front with graffitti on Friday they told him they knew where he lived and they would "get him".

Two weeks previously he had a ten-inch pair of scissors pulled on him by two shoplifting youths he suspected were on drugs.

In addition, his car has been rammed with a shopping trolley, the windows of the manager's car have been smashed, and bricks and bottles have been thrown at other workers' cars.

In another incident, a shop worker who challenged vandals in the store car park was followed home and stoned.

Mr McKenzie said: "It always happens in the evening, about 8 o'clock, and is a bit scary. You try to do an honest day's work and it's terrible.''

He said an hour passed before police responded to his call after Friday's incident.

A woman, who did not want to be named, said she was frightened as she sat in her car in nearby Normanby while her husband bought a takeaway.

She said she was given menacing looks by youths, who she suspected were buying drugs from a nearby car.

Her husband told her that customers at the food bar had been intimidated by youths hanging about outside.

Councillor Dave McLuckie, lead member for community safety with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said Langbaurgh Police commander Chief Superintendent John Kelly had told him patrols would be stepped up.

"Obviously this particular situation cannot be allowed to continue,'' Coun McLuckie said. "We have anti-social behaviour orders and good behaviour contracts and we will be issuing them to anyone we find taking this kind of activity.''

Police Inspector Tom Brown said crime analysts were now joining weekly police liaison meetings in Eston and Normanby "hot-spots'', where extra patrols were being concentrated.

He said police had not gone to Kwik Save immediately but had waited until Mr McKenzie finished work because that was when the threat would have been carried out.

People living in the area have raised a 1,600 name petition calling for security camera coverage for the area and improved policing.

Cleveland Police were unable to attend a public meeting in Normanby, but they sent a promise that there would be an "intense'' police presence in the town for the next month, which would concentrate on anti-social behaviour crime.

Councillor Sam Tombe, chairman of the council's anti-social behaviour committee, said he would call another meeting to measure progress in a fortnight's time.