A thief brazenly stole a laptop in seconds while distracting staff by pretending to sell his old one to them.
The man, whose face was covered by a hat, is caught on CCTV pocketing a laptop worth £400 on the shelf and tucking it inside his black gym bag while getting his old laptop out to show to shop workers. The theft occurred in the space of a few seconds.
The shocking incident was captured at Holiday Money Exchange in Westgate Arcade, Peterborough, last Friday at around 10.40am.
Having pocketed the new electronics, the man then attempts to flog his used laptop to shop staff, who are heard quoting £600 for the item.
The thief refuses the price before asking where else he could sell the laptop, casually leaving the store and even thanking the staff ‘for their help’.
Manager Sam Sooroya, 40, told the Daily Mail that this is the second theft they’d had in the space of a month, and criminals continue to steal despite the clear CCTV cameras around the shop because they think the police will do nothing about it.
The business shares its store with Superig Computers, which sells and offers repairs on electronics.
Mr Sooraya said: ‘We think it’s gang related, and we shared the footage to social media in the hope of raising awareness and preventing it from happening again by showing them we have CCTV.
The man, his face covered by a cap, was caught on CCTV snatching the laptop from a display shelf
He attempted to distract members of staff by getting out his old laptop and pretending to sell it
He then declined a quoted offer for £600, instead walking casually out of the shop and thanking the staff ‘for their help’
‘Shoplifting is on the rise, and for small businesses like ours, it’s a huge problem. Although for the police it might seem on a small scale, a £400 loss for us is massive.
‘This particular man came in holding his bag which is suspicious, and was trying to show us his old laptop.
‘They’re so brazen because they know we have the cameras there but they don’t care. They think the police will do nothing about it. It’s a huge problem in this area.’
‘We’ve reported it to the police but we haven’t had an update,’ he added.
The Daily Mail contacted Cambridgeshire Police for comment.
