THE actions of a shoplifter have left two cashiers at a popular gas station supermarket in shock and with two sizeable bills to pay the entity, after they had been outsmarted on two separate occasions by a person they described as “a very slick thief”.Conversing yesterday with one of the cashiers, who preferred to remain anonymous, this reporter was informed that just over a month ago, an unidentified man of African origin entered the supermarket whilst she was on duty, and proceeded to the shelves where cosmetics, skin care products, and hair care items were displayed. He brought to the counter a series of items amounting to $10,000., and indeed acted as if he were ready to cash the items. The cashier placed the items in a bag and told the man the cost, whereupon he went into ‘the royal drama’ of pretending he had left his cash in an ‘imaginary vehicle’ he claimed he had parked outside the outlet.
Naturally, with several customers behind him, the cashier asked the man to step aside and fetch the cash, as she began dealing with another customer. While she was busily engaged in serving the next customer, the man “left to get the cash”, but, unnoticed by her, he also left with the bag of items, and never returned. Sadly, this cashier now has to pay the company the $10,000 that the trickster did not pay to her.
Quite recently, this trickster struck again at the same location, this time targeting another unsuspecting cashier. From extracts taken from the supermarket’s surveillance cameras, the man again went to the shelf where cosmetics are displayed, selected a series of items plus $4,500 in Digicel phone cards, which he again pretended he intended to cash at the counter.
The man again pretended he had left his cash outside. Whilst he appeared to be placing the phone cards into the bag with the other items, he instead sleekly hid the cards in his pocket. All this was captured on surveillance cameras.
Cameras also revealed the man stuffing a set of cosmetic items into his pocket while standing at the area in the supermarket where they were stored. This cashier also took her eyes away from the man, who claimed he was going to get his cash, and she consequently shared the same fate as her colleague one month earlier. The man left the premises with the items and never returned. She, of course, has to repay her employers $15,000., being the value of this fraudster’s second heist.
The victims are urging other cashiers at other entities to be on the lookout for this culprit, whom they claimed had been dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, and was wearing a black cap on his head.
A printout from the cameras was given to this newspaper showing the thief pretending to be cashing items on his last heist; but, unfortunately, the image was too blurred and flawed by bad resolution to be printed along with this article.