“Your chicken’s been stolen.”
“Your chicken’s been stolen.”
These are the words farmer and owner of *Lungi and Ingram's fruit and vegetable store at Pepper Grove Mall, Ingram Reed, did not expect to hear in a restaurant in Grahamstown. Horrible crimes such as hijacking, kidnapping, rape and robbery are rife in parts of South Africa.
No one has ever thought to add food-napping to the list.
This new phenomenon presented itself on the afternoon of Tuesday 24 March, when Reed casually walked into a restaurant to treat himself to lunch.
After a busy morning of stock-taking and driving around his Belmont Valley farm, Reed decided to have lunch at a local restaurant and treated himself to chicken and chips.
He made his way there in his bakkie and placed an order "like always".
As per routine, his meal was served to him at his table and, with fork and knife in hand, he was ready to enjoy it.
But Reed could not have anticipated what happened next.
Before Reed could say Henny Penny, a man approached his table, snatched his chicken and casually walked out of the restaurant.
Reed stood up, stunned, and speechless with disbelief.
Within seconds, the chef had jumped over the counter and was chasing down the culprit.
Halfway down the street, the food-napper was caught and brought back to the scene of the crime.
Ashamed at his action, the culprit removed the chicken from a packet and replaced it on Reed’s plate, all the time asking for forgiveness.
Reed decided to let the matter go and allowed the chicken-snatcher to walk away.
*The original version incorrectly name the store owned by Lungi and Ingram Reed as Fruit and Veg.
