Restaurant owner David Straker was so upset when freshly delivered dairy products were stolen from outside his business that he became a detective to try to solve the crime himself.
Security cameras showed hooded thieves stealing goods from a storage box minutes after dropping them off, so he came up with the ingenious idea of using an AirTag to track the loot.
Straker, 56, who owns the William and Victoria wine bar and restaurant in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, with his wife Johanna, 53, decided to use a wheel of Brie as bait to lure the thieves into their trap.
He bought the cheese for around £10, carefully unwrapped it and slid the AirTag, which is about the size of a coin, into the soft cheese before resealing the wrapping.
The Brie was left in the storage box at the back of his restaurant overnight and the delivery driver was told not to touch it when he dropped off his usual order of milk, cream and cheese first thing in the morning.
Sure enough, moments after delivery, a hooded thief entered and took the Brie wheel from the open box at 7:25 a.m. on Friday, December 6.
Straker was able to track the Brie’s location on his phone, as the Apple tracking device inside emits a Bluetooth signal that is picked up by nearby phones and the location is displayed on a map.
For more than three weeks, Mr Straker has monitored his stolen Brie as it was taken to different locations in Yorkshire.
David Straker from Harrogate, whose William and Victoria restaurant has been the victim of a cheese thief
Cheese thief in action: Security cameras show hooded thieves stealing products from a storage box minutes after dropping them off
At a time when the Bries seemed to have settled into a property in Harrogate, he mustered up the courage to confront whoever lived there, only to think better of the idea when he arrived at the house.
“There were mattresses outside and a strong smell of a certain substance coming from the house and I thought ‘no, this is not a good idea’ and decided to leave it,” he said.
Since tracking began, the Brie has been taken to various addresses around Harrogate and neighboring Knaresborough, as well as Otley and Menston in West Yorkshire.
He said: “I think they drove him away in a van,” he said. “It’s been moving so much that I decided to wait until it stopped before reporting it to the police. It’s also our busiest time of year and I just haven’t had time to go to the police and give a statement. I’ll do that this week and hand in my tests.
Straker doesn’t trust the police to identify the culprit. “I feel bad saying it, but I don’t have high expectations of the police,” he said.
He decided to use the tracker to follow the cheese after learning that products were being offered suspiciously in restaurants around the city.
“On a whim I thought I would see if it showed up at another restaurant and where it might be,” he said.
Given that the AirTag has been sitting since Christmas Eve, it seems likely that the Brie, or at least the cheesy AirTag, has been dumped in a commercial bin in Knaresborough, five miles from its restaurant.
David Straker poses with his cheese. It has issued the following warning: ‘Next time you see a suspicious cyclist with a backpack full of dairy, think of us and our lost Brie. And remember: crime may pay, but cheese always costs
Beware the Cheese Thief: They were stealing freshly delivered dairy products outside Straker’s business, so he became a detective to try to solve the crime himself.
The identity of the thief remains unknown. However, Straker says his main concern is raising public awareness about annoying and costly petty thefts.
The identity of the thief remains unknown.
However, Straker said his main concern was raising public awareness about annoying and costly petty thefts.
‘We made a light-hearted post on our social media and you could say it’s just a bit of cheese, but in reality it’s more than just a bit of cheese, it’s something we buy to sell. The cost of our food is going up, the cost of our utilities is going up and it’s getting harder to run a business, so little things like that contribute to our margins shrinking.’
Straker said he has had hundreds of pounds worth of goods stolen from him in recent months, but he now has a properly locked and secured container to hold the deliveries which has so far prevented further theft.
“I have zero tolerance for theft,” he said.
Adding a message on their website to their customers: ‘Next time you see a suspicious cyclist with a backpack full of dairy, think of us and our lost Brie.’ And remember: crime may pay, but cheese always costs.