Johannesburg - A Joburg man’s thirst was so great that he didn’t wait for the beer to be offloaded from a delivery truck before grabbing some.
At 4.30pm and in broad daylight, CCTV cameras caught the beer bandit in the act as he nervously walked around a SA Breweries (SAB) truck that was offloading crates of beer outside the Hogshead bar in Douglasdale.
“PLEASE HELP!!!” Hogshead wrote on their Facebook page on Tuesday.
“SAB have asked us to help them find this thief that stole a case of beer off there (sic) truck outside our shop.
“Please if you know the details of this gentleman please contact us.”
The video starts with a smartly dressed man in a dark jacket and trousers with a light shirt walking out of the frame past five crates of beer placed on the ground next to the truck.
The nervous-looking amateur then walks back into the frame and stands next to the crates before he gives an Oscar-worthy performance by pretending to look for something on the floor and patting his jacket pockets.
He takes a few more steps around the booze, his gaze darting back and forth, and just as it seems he is going to walk away, he turns back and makes a beeline for the beer.
Grabbing the top crate, he audaciously slinks away with his loot on the pavement right outside the entrance of the pub but something catches his eye and he hastily returns the booze.
The shameless swindler doesn’t let this deter him.
Just 21 seconds later, he grabs the thirst-quenching prize.
This time he takes a different escape route, and with his gaze fixed in the direction of the bar.
Then he’s gone, only his shadow still visible as the video ends.
SAB spokeswoman Robyn Chalmers said they were investigating the matter.
“While we understand that our consumers are highly appreciative of our beer, we don’t condone theft of any sort and we thank our customer, Hogshead, for bringing this to our attention,” she said.
The Star