A store owner has hit out after an opportunistic thief left her hundreds of dollars out of pocket.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Melissa Meyers is the franchise owner of the Optus Orange store.
On Wednesday, January 10, her store manager Bree Wells was approached by what she assumed was a customer.
After greeting the man who was inquiring about purchasing a watch, she turned her back for a few seconds to attend to another customer.
When she returned to help the man, he was gone and so was an Apple Watch Series 9.
Ms Meyers was disappointed a member of the community would abuse their trust in such a way.
"The team are quite watchful, but it's a big store and they like to accommodate customers, so they can't always be with one person all the time," she said.
"They're trying their best to manage the flow of customers.
"You have faith that people are going to do the right thing by you and Orange is a small community, so it's not often you see this type of thing come to the forefront of businesses."
The cost of the watch - roughly $850 - is paid for by Ms Meyers to stock in store as opposed to the parent company covering the expense.
Having taken over the store in May 2023, she praised the hard work of her team and was disappointed thieves continued to target businesses like her one.
"The thing that people may forget is there's a face behind that brand. It's not that it's just Optus, I have a dedicated team who do an incredible job and it's not always an easy job to do," Ms Meyers said.
"The disappointing thing is we try and do what we can to put money back into the local community by supporting different initiatives."
The store owner took to Facebook to share a photo of a person she believed might be able to assist with inquiries.
Although Ms Meyers doubts she'll ever recover the stolen watch, she hopes by speaking out she can help protect others from having this happen to them.
"Hopefully it stops him from stealing from another business or person," she added.