Burglars ignore cash to strip store of food

Krystal Gray restocks the Wishbone store. Photo / Dean Purcell

When thieves broke into an inner-city store, they weren't looking for money or things they could sell.

Instead, they took every scrap of food they could get their hands on, leaving the cash register untouched.

Staff arrived to open the Wishbone food store in Shortland St in Auckland's CBD yesterday and found the door had been jemmied open.

The thieves had taken every item of food - about $1000 worth of fresh heat-and-eat meals, baking, muesli bars and lollies.

"The whole place was stripped," owner Andrea Gibson-Scarlett said.

"The shelves were just empty. They didn't take any drinks, they didn't take any money. They just took all the food. It was the whole lot, not one or two items. They took the whole bloody lot - it's unbelievable."

Ms Gibson-Scarlett said police would have access to any relevant footage captured by the store's security cameras.

"We're just trying to be positive. I guess it just shows they like our food. At least they've got good taste. It's a bit flattering."

Ms Gibson-Scarlett said there was no point dwelling on the loss of stock and damage to the store.

"It's a pain in the arse., We'll probably never get the money back. It's hard enough work on a day-to-day basis in retail. We didn't need this.

"But they took a huge risk breaking in in that area. So I guess it's a little bit of a compliment. We're just trying to look at the positives."

The store reopened after staff cleaned up and restocked.

Ms Gibson-Scarlett urged anyone with information about the break-in or who came across a large amount of discarded Wishbone packaging to contact police immediately.