Restaurant owner David Straker was so cheesed off when freshly delivered dairy products were being stolen from outside his business he turned detective to try and solve the crime himself.
Security cameras showed hooded thieves stealing the goods from a storage box minutes after they were dropped off, so he came up with the ingenious idea of using an AirTag to track the loot.
Mr 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 Brie wheel as bait to lure the thieves into his 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 sealing the wrapper up again.
The Brie was left in the storage box at the back of his restaurant at night and the delivery driver was told not to touch it when he dropped off his usual early morning order of milk, cream and cheese.
Sure enough moments after the delivery a hooded thief moved in and took the Brie wheel from the unlocked box at 7.25am on Friday 6 December.
Mr Straker was able to follow the location of the Brie on his phone as the Apple tracking device inside it emits a Bluetooth signal that is picked up by nearby phones, with the location being shown on a map.
For more than three weeks Mr Straker has monitored his stolen Brie as it has been taken to different locations around Yorkshire.
David Straker from Harrogate whose restaurant the William and Victoria which has been victim of a cheese thief
The cheese thief in action: Security cameras show hooded thieves stealing the goods from a storage box minutes after they were dropped off
At one point when the Brie appeared to have settled in a property in Harrogate he plucked 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 the tracking started the Brie has been taken to various addresses around Harrogate and neighbouring Knaresborough, as well as going to Otley and Menston in West Yorkshire.
He said: ‘I think it has been driven around in a van,’ he said. ‘It has been moving around so much I decided to wait until it had stopped before reporting it to the police. It is also our busiest time of the year and I just haven’t had the time to go to the police and give a statement. I am going to do that this week and hand over my evidence.’
Mr Straker is not confident the police will identify the culprit. ‘I feel bad saying it but I don’t have great expectations of the police,’ he said.
He decided to use the tracker to follow the cheese after hearing on the grapevine that goods were being suspiciously offered to restaurants around town.
‘On a complete whim I thought I could see if it turned up at another restaurant and where it could be,’ he said.
With the AirTag being stationary since Christmas Eve it seems likely the Brie, or at least the cheesy AirTag has been dumped in a commercial bin in Knaresborough, five miles from his restaurant.
David Straker poses with his cheese. He has issued the following warning: ‘Next time you see a suspicious cyclist with a backpack full of dairy, spare a thought for us and our lost Brie. And remember: crime might pay, but cheese always costs’
Beware the cheese thief: Freshly delivered dairy products were being stolen from outside Straker’s business so he turned detective to try and solve the crime himself
The identity of the thief remains unknown. However, Mr Straker says his main concern is to raise public awareness of the annoying and costly petty thefts
The identity of the thief remains unknown.
However, Mr Straker said his main concern was to raise public awareness of the annoying and costly petty thefts.
‘We put out a light-hearted post on our social media and you could say it’s just a bit of cheese, but it’s actually more than a bit of cheese, it’s stuff that we are buying to sell. The cost of our food is going up, the cost of our utilities is going up and it’s getting harder and harder to run a business, so just little things like that do contribute as our margins are shrinking.’
Mr Straker said he has had hundreds of pounds worth of goods stolen in recent months, but now has a properly locked and secured container to hold deliveries that has so far prevented further thefts.
‘I have a zero tolerance towards theft,’ he said.
Adding a message on his website to his customers: ‘Next time you see a suspicious cyclist with a backpack full of dairy, spare a thought for us and our lost Brie. And remember: crime might pay, but cheese always costs.’
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