Hunt for cronut crook
A PASTRY thief dressed in pink pyjamas has been caught on camera stealing from a business in Bushland Beach.
Owner of Bushland Beach Convenience and Take Away John Smith said CCTV caught the brazen thief grabbing loaves of bread and a day’s worth of cronuts on Saturday morning.
“We noticed it was all the cronuts, some pastries and bread ( gone),” Mr Smith said.
“When they weren’t there we had to go and check to find out what was going on.”
Footage showed the greedy thief helping herself to two boxes of pastries and two loaves of bread dressed in pink pyjama pants, a black hoodie and slippers about 4.37am.
“It was probably about 100 bucks worth – not a big amount,” Mr Smith said. “But it’s the fact people are stealing from the local community.”
Coincidentally, Mr Smith’s store is known as “The Pink Shop” because its exterior is painted hot pink.
“The pink pyjamas are a giveaway if anybody knows her,” Mr Smith said.
He posted the CCTV footage to Facebook in an effort to track down the bread bandit.
“I personally think she’s a customer who has come into the shop, she looks familiar,” Mr Smith said.
“We’ve had a lot of feedback on social media about it, people are pretty upset.”
John and Veronica Smith have lived in Bushland Beach for 30 years and owned the store for about 10.
“It’s frustrating, not to mention it makes you angry,” Mr Smith said. It is the second time in just months goods have been stolen from a delivery.
“It was a similar situation, a car pulled up, they hid their faces and rego,” Mr Smith said.
“They knew that the cameras were there, she’s covered her face up when she’s walked towards the camera.”
Mr Smith said Bushland Beach is a tight- knit and friendly community.
“All of our customers apart from that 1 per cent are fantastic,” he said.
“We get customers coming from all over Townsville to Bushy Beach for our fish and chips.”