Harrogate restauranteur hides location tracker in cheese to catch thieves

A restaurant owner whose cheese deliveries were being targeted by thieves hid a tracking device in a wheel of brie in a bid to catch the culprits.

David Straker, who owns the William and Victoria wine bar in Harrogate, said he had been suffering from looters targeting the food deliveries to his business for the past few years.

Security cameras showed hooded criminals stealing fresh produce from a storage box outside the wine bar minutes after it was delivered.

The restauranteur-turned-detective was so cheesed off that he hatched a plan to hide an AirTag in a block of brie to bait the thieves.

Mr Straker, 56, carefully unwrapped the brie, slid the location tracker into the soft cheese and rewrapped the package. It was then placed in the storage box at the back of the restaurant.

The cheese was swiped from the unlocked box at 7.30am the next day.

The Apple tracking device emitted a bluetooth signal to Mr Straker's phone which allowed him to see the whereabouts of the brie.

With help from his team, he followed it around alleys in North Yorkshire until it rested at a property with a pile of discarded mattresses in the garden.

The AirTag shows the brie has been stationary since Christmas Eve with the likelihood that the cheese was dumped in a commercial bin in Knaresborough, five miles from the restaurant.

Mr Straker says he now faces the decision to either present his evidence to the police or continue the search himself.

But for now, the cheese thieves are still at large.

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