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Strange moment ‘meat thief’ is shot down with a suitcase full of raw meat, as experts warn that premium cuts like Scottish steaks and ribs are being used as black market currency to buy drugs.
- Alleged meat thief pursued by supermarket boss
- The man was shot down and placed under citizen’s arrest.
- Private detective claims expensive beef is being used as currency
A suspected meat thief has been dramatically chased along a busy Sydney street and tackled to the ground as fed up business owners claim beef is the new main target for thieves amid soaring prices of groceries.
Footage shows a man shoving a suitcase allegedly filled to the brim with premium cuts he stole from Harris Farm Markets in Randwick over the weekend, before being caught by none other than the supermarket’s CEO making a citizen’s arrest. .
Experienced private investigator Shane Windred says the goods aren’t stolen by thieves to feed his family, but are used as black market currency to buy drugs.
He has been looking into the recent rise in robbery gangs and says a large amount of meat, worth up to $50 a kilo, has been ‘walking out the front door’.
The CEO of Harris Farm Markets in Randwick chased down a suspected thief whose suitcase was full of beef (pictured)
“I’m seeing eye steaks, (stolen) whiskey steaks… up to 30 trays at a time,” he told 7News.
It has been catching thieves for the retail industry for three decades.
Last week, he caught a thief at a different supermarket and recovered a loot of dozens of meat products.
“What they are doing is taking $500 or $600 in meat to the drug dealer and using it as currency,” he said.
The man in the video is allegedly a repeat thief from the family business who has stolen thousands of dollars worth of meat.
He was questioned and released by police without charge pending further investigation.
He tossed it to the ground and staged a dramatic citizen’s arrest in front of shocked bystanders (pictured)
The Australian Retailers Association estimated that all forms of shoplifting in the retail sector cost retailers $9.5 billion per year.
That cost is ultimately passed on to other consumers through higher in-store margins.
According to the data, Coles and Woolworths supermarkets and Myer and David Jones department stores were at the top of the pack for the number of dollars lost to shoplifting.
It comes at a time when Australia’s cost-of-living crisis has worsened with inflation hitting a new 32-year high of 7.8 percent.
The consumer price index for the year through December rose at the fastest annual rate since the March 1990 quarter, described by Treasurer Jim Chalmers as “unacceptably high.”