A Michelin-star chef has appealed to thieves to ‘do the right thing’ and hand over £25,000 worth of stolen pies to people in need.
Tommy Banks, who owns two restaurants and a pub in North Yorkshire, told his followers on Instagram that a van carrying £25,000 of his stock had been targeted.
The van was due to make a delivery to the chef’s pop-up pie stall at the York Christmas Market this week when it was set upon by thieves.
Staff found the van had disappeared from Barker business park in Melmerby, near Ripon, on Monday morning.
Now, Banks has urged the criminals to get in the Christmas spirit and ‘do something nice’, by taking the pies somewhere such as a community centre.
He said: ‘I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen, do the right thing.’
Banks also asked anyone who is offered the pies by someone who is not him, to report it to the police.
The Michelin-star chef said he believes the thieves got more than they bargained for when they looked in the back of the van to find 2,500 pies.
The stolen items include steak and ale pies, turkey and cranberry pies and butternut squash pies.
Speaking on Instagram, he said: ‘It’s horrible being robbed but what I can’t get my head around is these guys probably stole the van right, but they probably didn’t bargain for nearly tonne of pies that’s in the back of it.
‘And it’s kind of sad because that’s a lot of meat, a lot of flour, a lot of eggs and a lot of work – so much work. So, I guess, they probably will watch this video because they’re driving around with boxes of pies with my name written all over it.
‘So if you see this video, I know the pies are gone and you’ve nicked my van and I’m probably not getting it back but you can’t do anything with these pies.
‘So can you drop them off somewhere, maybe like a community centre, where someone who needs them can eat them.’
The Instagram post read: ‘So Matthew Lockwood went into this morning to pick up the Van and it has been stolen.
‘The guys had loaded up the van with stock for today and left plugged in overnight. I am guessing the thieves didn’t realise they were stealing 2,500 pies along with the van!
‘The pies are all in boxes with my name on so not very easy to sell. If you are the thieves and read this I urge you to the drop the pies off somewhere.
‘So we can at least give them to people who need food and they are not wasted.
‘Also I think you are a thieving piece of s*** and I hope you don’t get any presents this Christmas.’