Ben Scott, who owns Benny’s Barber Shop in Disraeli St, Sydenham, had a Honda CT110 motor-cycle, television, PlayStation 4 and the store’s till, with a combined value of about $5000, stolen from his store early on Monday morning.
Scott posted on Facebook, giving the alleged burglar, who was recorded on the store’s cameras, an ultimatum of handing himself in by 4pm on Monday before he reported the incident to police.
Said Scott’s post: “Possibly the best and worst birthday to date. Waking up to a phone call that some [clown] has broken into my shop and decided to help himself to our TV, PS4, the till and possibly the funniest bit is stealing my little pride and joy the [Honda] CT110 that sat at the shop for kids to look at. #happybirthdaylol.”
This post was shared 881 times, which helped Scott find the motor-cycle under a bridge near the store.
At about 5.30pm on Monday, the other stolen items had not been returned, so Scott posted again and extended the deadline for reporting the incident to police until 7.30am on Tuesday.
As Scott was in the process of reporting the burglary to police, someone who had seen the TV and PlayStation being sold on Facebook Marketplace for about $600 called him to let him know.
Said Scott: “At Tuesday lunchtime, I got a phone call from a private number saying that I want to be anonymous, but I’ll let you know who the person [selling the items] is.”
Scott is unsure if the items have been sold, but the person who allegedly stole them is known to police, who will attempt to retrieve them.
“The person is trying to sell it on Facebook Marketplace, so we’ve kind of found where the TV and the PlayStation is, we’re just waiting for the cops to go pick it up for us.
“They [police] know the person anyway, which is ideal.
“We might know pretty soon where all our stuff is, so that would be ideal,” he said.
