An Auckland woman has installed security cameras at her roadside fruit and vegetable stall because of dishonest customers.
The woman, Grass Esposti, moved to her property in Omaha four months ago, and had been operating a stall selling fresh produce, which she put out each morning and left for customers to purchase.
However, after months of operation, Ms Esposti realised people were not being honest when leaving money in the stall's honestly box.
In the box were payments made in sewing buttons, old tickets, and even Monopoly money, to which she responded, "people who should know better are stealing".
Ms Esposti took action, installing 24-hour CCTV cameras at the stall, hoping to end this fraudulent behavior.
"You can zoom into a person's fingernails to see what they're putting in," she told Stuff .
The cameras could not only zoom in to see if customers were paying correctly, but also recognised the license plates of past offenders who had stolen from her stall.
Another stall owner, Allan Clarke, who sold grapes down the road from Ms Esposti, said he had also been a victim of people stealing his produce.
"People will always steal. Overall, honesty still prevails here," Mr Clarke said.
Police senior sergeant Mike Higgie responded, and said offenders caught would likely be charged with potential robbery or theft depending on where the honesty box was located on the property.
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