The co-owner of a well-known east Auckland café says the days of being able to receive a delivery at the business’s back door and knowing it’ll be there when staff turn up to begin work in the morning appear to be over.
A 36-second clip of security camera footage of the recent alleged theft of bread from the back of The Apothecary Licensed Eatery in Picton Street, Howick, has been shared on the café’s Facebook page.
It shows a vehicle parked at the back of the business at about 5.35am on Friday, October 24. The area at the back of the café is accessed by vehicles from Wellington Street.
Two people are seen going on foot from the parked vehicle, which is on the left-hand side of the frame, out of sight briefly before returning to the vehicle.
Both people are holding several large and long boxes, which appear to then be placed inside the vehicle’s boot.
One of the people in the video appears to have a cigarette in his mouth.
They then close the boot, get into the vehicle, and reverse it out of the parking space to leave.
The post on the café’s Facebook page is accompanied by the hashtags “getajob” and “losers” and requests to be sent the names of the people seen in the video footage.
Apothecary co-owner Ted Waters says the theft was discovered when his chef told him the café’s bread order hadn’t turned up.
The supplier, Wild Wheat bakery in Howick, was notified the order wasn’t there as expected and it was needed.
“Sometimes if it’s short we can run down to Wild Wheat, on the main street, but that raids all their retail stock,” Waters says.
“So we’d rather have the order. He said ‘that’s strange’ and got back to me and said ‘it’s been delivered’ and ‘are you sure it hasn’t been stolen?’
“I said, ‘mate in 15 years now we’ve never had any bread stolen’, and he said he’d replace it regardless.
“We checked the cameras anyway and I rang him back in an hour and said, ‘we’ve got two guys running off with our bread boxes’.”
Waters says the stolen bread was high quality and worth about $200.
“It’s more the annoyance on a Friday. The boys get all the sandwiches and everything ready pretty early.
“Our bread comes in just after 5am each morning and like every café in New Zealand, the bread delivery gets dropped to the back door.
“Maybe it’s a change in society that we can’t even do that. I don’t know whether it’s opportunist and I don’t even know if they knew what was in it.
“It’s not necessarily branded with anything. They just grabbed it and ran.”
A police spokesperson says enquiries are continuing following a report of theft from outside a business in Howick on October 24.
“At about 5.35am, police received a report of two people taking a number of boxes from outside the back entrance to a Picton Street eatery.
“Enquiries are now under way, including reviewing CCTV, to identify and locate those responsible.
“Anyone with information is asked to update police online now or call 105 using the reference number 251028/7831.
“Information can also be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
