Cafe manager tricks cheque thief
A Christchurch cafe manager tricked a chequebook thief into handing over a stolen cheque.
And it turned out the cheque was from an 83-year-old who had his chequebook stolen at the time of his wife’s funeral last week.
Tasty Treats Dairy and Cafe manager Tara Aitcheson decided to become a crime solver when she became suspicious of a man who wanted to get cash out with a cheque.
‘‘It’s only old people who have cheques, so it is pretty obvious it must have come from an old person. And I’d hate for that to happen to older people in my family.’’
Aitcheson said the man came into Tasty Treats Cafe in Wordsworth Street last week to buy food with the cheque. He also asked to cash it for $160.
‘‘I thought it was really weird. I just got this sort of feeling that I needed to get my hands on the cheque.
‘‘Normally I wouldn’t even take a cheque, but I said ‘I’ll give you $30 for the cheque and you can come back in three hours for the rest of the money’. He accepted that and said he was coming back.’’
The ANZ cheque was taken to the ANZ Bank just down the road. Aitcheson said it was confirmed as stolen.
‘‘The bank lady came around and we took the photos off the cameras.’’
She posted the photos of the man on Facebook and about 30 minutes later a friend rang to say it was his father’s chequebook. She says the family and the bank knew the man was trying to cash cheques in the area.