Brazen thieves have who raided the shelves of an Aberdeen farm shop have been caught on CCTV.
Two males were spotted taking home-baked goods and jams from Hillside Farm Shop in Longmanhill near Macduff on Tuesday afternoon.
The shed-sized store works on the basis of an honesty box and sells farm eggs and local goods.
However, two culprits were spotted on CCTV grabbing food items and pretending to put money in the box before driving off.
The owner of the shop, Lewis Morrison, has now turned to Facebook and loyal customers to try and track down the thieves.
Packed car with Hillside Farm Shop home bakes
The theft happened at about 4.15pm on Tuesday, and was discovered when Mr Morrison checked the shop’s CCTV when he noticed the low stock.
He said: “I was looking at the camera and seeing all the home bakes were gone and I thought that’s strange for that time of day.
“Then I looked back on the camera and about 10 minutes before, there were two males in the shop just helping themselves to products.
“They basically stole about £50 worth of goods, so it’s not really a lot, but it’s a lot to me.
“They basically took all of that, got in the car and that was them off.”
In CCTV footage shared online, one male is shown entering the store with his hood up rubbing his hands before starting to grab items off the shelves.
A second male shortly follows and proceeds to also help himself to goods.
He then pretends to drop money into the honesty box and appears to write a note on the notepad left next to the tin. However, no writing could be seen in the notepad from them.
They are then seen driving away in a red Audi.
Tips from Facebook appeal to find thieves
Mr Morrison has now contacted the police but said a few people had already given a few tips after the Facebook post was shared.
The 18-year-old said: “We just thought we’d put it on Facebook, the power of Facebook will hopefully find them. They’ve been a lot more helpful than the police have for sure.”
Starting the business last year to help “serve the public with local stuff”, Mr Morrison said the one-year anniversary of the store is on Friday.
He added: “It’s been very good for the first year until yesterday.
“It’s a bit disappointing, I’ve been quite lucky up until now.
“I’m putting my trust into the public to be honest and if people aren’t honest then there’s no point having this.
“I want people to be honest and hopefully show people that folk like that should be caught and hopefully get a punishment of some sort.”
A police spokeswoman said: “Police received a report of a theft of goods from a farmshop at Hillside, Longmanhill, Aberdeenshire at around 4.15pm on Tuesday, March 14. Inquiries are ongoing.”
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