A clever restaurant owner used an AirTag in a wheel of brie to track down thieves who stole his cheese, revealing a larger issue of theft.
Harrogate: So, there’s this restaurant owner, David Straker, who got really fed up with thieves stealing his cheese deliveries. One day, he decided to fight back. He saw some hooded figures on his security cameras snatching up his fresh goods, and that was it. He had to do something.
David, who runs the William and Victoria wine bar with his wife, came up with a plan. He hid an AirTag inside a wheel of brie, which he left in a storage box outside his restaurant. The idea was to track the cheese after it got stolen. Pretty clever, right?
Sure enough, a thief took the bait just after a delivery. David watched the cheese travel all over Yorkshire for weeks. At one point, it even seemed to be inside a house in Harrogate, but he thought better of confronting anyone there. It just didn’t feel safe.
He noticed the brie was moving around a lot, and he figured it was probably in a van. But with the holiday rush, he didn’t have time to report it to the police just yet. He planned to do that soon, though, with all the evidence he gathered.
Eventually, the AirTag stopped moving around Christmas Eve, which made David wonder if the thief had ditched it or found the tracker. He’s not too hopeful about the police catching the guy, either. He’s been through this before and knows how tough it can be.
David shared his story on his restaurant’s website, hoping to raise awareness about how theft affects small businesses. He pointed out that every stolen block of cheese means lost service and extra stress for everyone involved. It’s a tough gig running a restaurant, and he just wants people to understand the real cost of these crimes.
Now, he’s installed a locked container for deliveries to keep the thieves at bay. And he’s got a message for anyone who might be tempted: next time you see someone acting suspiciously with a backpack full of dairy, think of the lost brie and the impact on local businesses.
