Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said that on March 24, the Honey by Wrights 24/7 unmanned honey stall in Ettrick Rd, Central Otago, had 12 buckets of honey stolen, with each bucket able to hold 6kg.
Snr Sgt Bond said after an investigation, Dunedin police went to a Central Dunedin address at 12.15am yesterday to speak to a man, who was caught on video at the stall, in relation to a honey theft.
Honey by Wrights owner Michael Wright posted CCTV footage of the alleged crime on social media, noting one of the two alleged offenders caught on camera repeatedly scratched himself in the groin area while taking the honey.
He jokingly suggested the man may have been after the honey for its medicinal qualities.
"We all know honey has amazing healing properties. Maybe he had a rash he needed clearing up?"
However, he said the sheer volume of honey stolen was far more than the scratcher would have needed to clear up any rash he may have had.
"The Facebook community is very good at tracking people down. Usually if I put a video up, usually within a day we could have their names, addresses and phone number.
"Usually if we just ring the person up and say ‘Hey look, come pay for it and we’ll forget about it’. We did contact this guy and asked for him to come and return to pay.
"The man did say he would come pay, but he just disconnected his phone instead."
Mr Wright said the man gave him a "sob story", about how he could not return the honey because someone broke into his car and stole it.
"It’s almost like talking to a 5-year-old sometimes. They come up with some interesting stories and think they’re very clever — but they’re never really that clever."
The 46-year-old man was charged with theft and would appear in court at a later date.
He was no longer in possession of any honey, Snr Sgt Bond said.
