A Scots shop owner was left gutted after thieves snatched his wallet and racked up a £1,500 bill in a spending spree.
Mark Bain, the owner of the bike and electric scooter shop Skootz on Easter Road in Edinburgh, had his wallet nicked from the front desk on Thursday afternoon.
Mark revealed he had watched back CCTV and identified the couple they say are responsible.
The thieves spent around £1,500 of their money in an hour at shops around town, reports Edinburgh Live.
Explaining what had happened, Mark shared that their shop assistant had left the wallet on the front desk after being to the bank.
The thieves, who entered the shop under the guise of customers, had spoken to the assistant for around 30 minutes before pocketing the wallet.
Mark said: “He had left the wallet on the front desk, the guy must of saw it from the street and then came in and put a newspaper over it.
“Our shop assistant then saw them at the entrance so came through and was chatting to them for about half an hour before the guy picked up his newspaper with the wallet in it and left.
“The pin for the company card must have been inside the wallet because they then spent around £1,500. Our transactions show they went to McDonald’s for food then to B&M, then to a newsagents to buy cigarettes and then they went to the Samsung shop and spent £1,177 on a new phone.
“He also took out £250 in cash so in total it was just under £1,500 in just over an hour. It’s really hurt us, we’re just a small business and that money is more than our rent for the month.
“We’ve only been here for around a year and we’re not a massive company that can take that loss, so it’s really damaged us.
“I’m also angry that we allowed ourselves to be so stupid to let that happen, and let ourselves be taken advantage of.”
Mark was overwhelmed by the response from locals after sharing their appeal for help online.
He added: “The power of social media and the power of people in Edinburgh is amazing. We put up the post trying to identify them and within a few hours we had around ten people giving us information that we could pass onto the police.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We received a report of an incident of fraud, around 4pm on Thursday, 3 March, 2022.
“A bank card was stolen from a premises on Easter Road and used to make purchases.
“Enquiries are at an early stage and ongoing.”
