Wairarapa-based organic produce seller Don Staples was the victim of a quick-fingered thief at the Thorndon Farmers Market in Wellington on Saturday morning.
Staples said he couldn’t believe his eyes when his market cash box, containing between $400 and $600, was swiped from his table.
“It’s never happened before. I certainly have never seen anything like that at the market, and I’ve been going for four or five years.”
Staples had his back turned to the table when a young man in a dark hoodie suddenly lunged and grabbed the box before “hightailing it past St Paul’s Cathedral”.
Staples and a group of loyal customers and market regulars chased the crook.
“I didn’t count, but there would have been about six or seven of us,” Staples said.
“One lady was yelling at the top of her voice, ‘stop that thief’, and we were all going as fast as we could.”
Eventually, one of Staples’ customers caught up and found the man trying to hide in a grassy area to the side of Parliament.
The customer managed to grab the cash box back, but the thief had already stuffed a significant amount of the money in his pockets.
Staples said he had noticed the perpetrator earlier in the day exhibiting arguably antisocial behaviour.
“I had told him off because he kept going around picking up produce and sniffing it and putting it back down,” Staples said.
“His eyes definitely looked like he was on something.”
Staples said the loss put a decent dent in the morning’s total earnings, and that it was a sad reflection of the world today.
“It’s sad it’s come to this, people are just so angry it’s come to this stage,” said Staples.
“It’s a big chunk of money. All this produce I’ve had to purchase myself, so it’s not like it doesn’t have a cost associated with it.”
However, Staples was also grateful to his friends and customers in the market community who leapt to his defence.
“They’re all really nice people, it was certainly terrific to get that support.”
An online report is with police, including photos of the perpetrator that someone at the scene managed to snap after the pursuit.
