Crims target cafe

Could these four people be the city's dumbest crims?
They burgled a city cafe this week and were clearly caught on security camera stripping the place of loads of food like chips, bacon and butter _ but failed to cover their faces.
The four _ two casually dressed young men and two women clutching handbags as if they were going out for a night at the movies _ struck the Fatted Aphid in Piccadilly Arcade early yesterday.
The problem was this was the third time either they or their mates had struck the cafe since December. It had obviously not occurred to them that the owners would put in security cameras.
If anyone knows who they are _ quite likely given the quality of the photos _ Fatted Aphid owner Luke Fryett wants them to call police because he is fed up at being hit in the pocket.
The cafe has been raided twice this month and once in December. He said the cost to his business has reached $3000.
In the latest raid, camera footage reveals the thieves casually taking what they please from two fridges and a freezer used to store ingredients and prepared food.
Mr Fryett, 24, whose family started the business in April 2006, said after the cafe was raided in late December, he installed a surveillance camera. But his cafe was targeted again on February 16 and again in the early hours of yesterday morning.
During each burglary, the thieves smashed padlocks off the fridges and taken large quantities of food, some of which was destined to fill catering orders the following day.
"They actually left a few (slices of cake) that they'd nibbled on and thrown on the floor," Mr Fryett said.
Footage of the second attack revealed grainy images of three males working by torchlight, one of whom reappears in yesterday's footage where he is accompanied by two females and male. On both occasions he returned twice at intervals of at least an hour, sparking suspicion the thieves may live nearby.
"It looks like they're just walking in from town and just decided to have something to eat," Mr Fryett said.
"You wonder if it's a whole flat of them who live together because they obviously know each other," said Mr Fryett.
Police are unable to establish how the thieves _ who appear to be aged in their late teens to early 20s _ gained access to the secured back room of the cafe but believe it may be through a metal roller door backing on to an alley off Grey St.
Forensic staff found no fingerprints on the door and Mr Fryett is convinced the movement-activated camera would have revealed the glare from an outside light, had the door been opened.
He said there were seven people who had a key to the door to the back room. In order to replicate another, the locksmith required written permission from the body corporate of the arcade, which links Grey St and Devonport Rd.
Watching the latest footage, Hannah Fryett, 22, pointed out that the male from the earlier raid appeared familiar with his surroundings. "It's like he's showing them what he found the other day," she said.
Mr Fryett said: "It's been quite disheartening for everyone in the arcade."
If the culprits were caught, he was tempted to make them work off their crime somehow in the cafe. "They have no idea of actually working for stuff," he said.
Yesterday staff placed a blackboard displaying images of the "hungry thieves" outside the cafe and later in Grey St, sparking the interest of passersby, some of whom were able to name the young people in the photographs.
Tauranga Senior Sergeant Ross Bielby confirmed police were investigating but no arrests had been made by early today.