Farmer's wife caught the thief

“He should never show his face here again!”

This farm store in Mauthausen was regularly looted.(Bild: zVg)

"I told him never to show his face again": Maria B., a farmer's wife and resolute owner of a farm store in Mauthausen (Upper Austria), caught a serial thief who had been repeatedly stocking up on cider and reaching into her till for weeks.

It's a tiresome problem that annoys many farmers who run farm stores. We're talking about those "customers" who not only buy cashless, but also buy "free" - in other words: long fingers.

Maria B., who has been running a small farm store in Mauthausen for a year, also had one such persistent customer for around three weeks, who was also particularly thirsty: "He kept coming back, mostly on Sundays, taking cider and not paying, but also reaching into the till. We had a surveillance camera and filmed everything. But that didn't help us because we didn't know who he was."

This farm store in Mauthausen was regularly looted.(Bild: zVg)

Unloved "regular customer"
On Sunday, the "regular customer" turned up again. Maria B.: "I saw him come along on his bike. When he saw me, he cycled on. I went into the house. Then I thought I'd get in the car and follow him. He had already come back and was in the farm store."

The resolute farmer's wife told the thief not to show his face again. He took off running. The police were alerted and were able to catch him a quarter of an hour later. The Baltic man (48) confessed, he is in custody pending extradition due to his residence ban.