Watch as 'brazen' shoplifter steals £200 worth of pistachios from Leeds store amid Dubai chocolate craze
An appeal has been issued by a healthy food store in Leeds after a “brazen” shoplifter stole its entire display of pistachio nuts on two separate occasions.
Out Of This World on Central Road in Leeds city centre has shared footage that you can view above of the two thefts, during which the woman fills her handbag with pistachios before abruptly leaving.
Nearly £200 worth of the nuts were stolen over the two occasions.
Damian Tapper, 44, who opened the store 21 years ago, said that he believes the nuts have been stolen with the intention of being resold due to the growing popularity for ‘Dubai chocolate’, which includes the nut and chopped filo pastry.
Mr Tapper said: “I think she will have stolen them in bulk purely because she knows there’s demand at the moment and she knew she’d be able to sell them cheaper than shops.
“With our health conscious customers pistachios have always been popular but now they have become popular with mainstream consumers. This happened due to the increase in popularity of Asian style desserts and of course Dubai chocolate.”
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The two thefts happened recently within the space of a few days. Mr Tapper said: “The first time she came in and completely cleared us out of pistachio nuts but took nothing else which is what makes this weird. It was obviously a very targeted theft.”
He added that there has been a noticeable increase of shoplifting post-Covid with other popular health items such as almond milk and protein powders.
He said: “The thing we have noticed is they are so brazen and confident.
“We’ve found that it goes in phases. Say if there’s a particular chocolate or coffee we will get that stolen. It goes in waves.”
He added: “You would not thing that there’s a black market for almond milk or other healthy foods.
“The reason we’ve put this appeal out is because we feel she’s known to the police and maybe someone else in retail.”
Mr Tapper requested that people keep an eye out for Out Of This World-branded pistachios being sold cheaply around Leeds and to continue to support them at their current store, which they moved to one year ago.
West Yorkshire Police have confirmed that the thefts were listed as between 3:20pm on July 30 and 3pm on August 7.