A Maserati driver who allegedly stole large amounts of bananas from a fruit stand is a local who did it right in front of the stall owner’s eyes before driving off in his luxury car, the fruit seller claims.
The man, who was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt with a dark backwards cap and sunglasses, was seen pulling up to the Banana Brothers roadside fruit stall in Caravonica, Cairns, in far north Queensland, at 3.30pm last Thursday.
CCTV footage shows the man approaching the stand and loading up on as many bananas as he could carry before leaving allegedly without paying the $2 per kg cost.
Banana Brothers sells bananas supplied by a local farmer at a fraction of the cost of major supermarket prices across their seven unmanned stalls across Cairns.
The stalls operate on an honesty system, where customers can pay either with cash or a card.
Speaking to news.com.au the stand’s owner, Aaron Marsh, said he was frustrated when he spotted the man stealing the bananas right in front of him after he arrived at the stand to replenish the stock that afternoon.
The 51-year-old said he had parked his car behind the man’s luxury vehicle when he witnessed him “walk over and grab the whole arm load”.
“I was looking at him thinking well, ‘how’s he gonna weigh that?’ And then he got back into his car.
“I looked at him in his mirror like ‘what are you doing?’ And he just took off and went out on the road and just bolted.
“The frustrating thing was that he saw me … He saw someone watching him, and he still just went ahead with it anyway and drove off.”
Mr Marsh said it was upsetting considering the man was driving “such a nice car”, suggesting “he’s not struggling” for money.
Mr Marsh estimates the man stole 3-4kg of bananas, estimated to be worth $6-8.
“It wasn’t just one or two. I’ve had people pull up with screaming kids in the car and you see people grab two bananas for the kids. But this is different, this is taking the whole arm full. That’s just crazy, what were you doing with that many bananas?”
After checking the CCTV footage to confirm the man did not pay, the business shared the incident on a local Cairns Facebook page last week.
“Mr Maserati you forgot to pay..! I’m sure you were just too busy or you simply forgot to pay for your bananas,” the post read.
“Get in contact with the Banana Brothers and we can sort out payment.
Cost of living crisis is biting hard if Maserati drivers can’t afford $2 bananas,” the post concluded.
Many online were quick to slam the man who has been identified as a member of the local community.
“It’s a pretty small place, it only took an hour for someone to point out where he lived. It’s too small of a place to be pulling that kind of stuff,” Mr Marsh said.
A week on, Mr Mash said the man, who is still yet to pay, has copped abuse from members of public.
“Everyone knows where he lives and where his kids go to school and what car he drives,” he said.
“You’ve got people yelling stuff at them all the time. So hopefully this has done enough to make him regret that and think maybe he should do the right thing.”
Mr Mash said he doesn’t want to involve police in the incident and waste precious time or resources. Instead, he is calling for the man to pay for the produce and apologise – neither of which he thinks he will receive.
“An apology would be nice … but he doesn’t seem like he cares,” he said.
“We offered (on the Facebook post) for him to come in, or just pay us – chuck five bucks in the box or tap on the EFTPOS and let us know you paid it and all be forgiven. But I’m 99 per cent sure he would have seen the post or someone would have told him what’s going on and he hasn’t made any effort for repayment.”
It’s not the first time people have stolen from Banana Brothers.
Mr Mash said there are days it’s very clear people have walked away with the produce without paying, which has a flow on effect on his business.
“(People) don’t realise we have to actually pay for the bananas and for the freight and for all the costs and insurance and licences and everything that goes with it. So we’re not selling a free product, it does cost us a lot of money,” he said.
Mr Marsh said he tries to keep the prices low amid the cost-of-living crisis but he may be forced to jack up the cost if thefts continue.
“The ones that ruin it for everyone is frustrating,” he said.
“The more people steal, the less our margin is on it … at some stage, if it’s happening too much we’ll have to put our price up and then the honest people suffer for it.”