In contactless self-collection gone wrong, stranger steals and eats baked goods meant for a customer

One moment, a bag of baked goods had been hanging on the front gates of home baker Mary's Delights.

The next, it vanished — and not because the rightful owner came by to pick it up. 

The baker, who declined to be named, came home to a rude shock last Friday (Sept 25) when she found the bag she left at her door gone despite the customer having yet to turn up.

In her Facebook post that evening, she shared how she had gone on a wild goose chase, only to find the remains of the pilfered goods strewn across her HDB block's staircase landing.

"[In all] my 9 years in this business line... all self-collection has been a breeze," she wrote. "But today, contactless collection has gone wrong when the item went missing."

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The baker explained how her customer had originally arranged to pick up the order at 3pm that day. However, the customer was running late and the home baker had to fetch her child from school. As such, she left the bag of goods hanging on her gate before leaving for the customer to self-collect. 

When the baker returned home at around 4.50 pm, she noticed the bag was gone. Believing the customer had already collected the order, the baker didn't think much about it — until the customer informed her that they were on the way to her place.

Upon realising that the goods had been stolen, she immediately ran out in search for it but it didn't take long for her to discover where they had gone, she stated in her post.

In the photos attached, the treats had been removed from the box and each individual tub within had been cleared of its contents. The baker also found one of the tubs unceremoniously disposed of in a child's bicycle basket. 

"Who in [the] right state of mind would do such a thing with foods?" the baker questioned.

While the police told AsiaOne that a report has been lodged and investigations are ongoing, the baker has since made the decision to only allow self-collection for customers during their pre-booked slot in order to prevent a repeat of the incident.

"I forgive whoever who did it, who are we to hold such hatred and grudge on someone?" she added in a follow-up post. "Let's take this as a lesson, for you and me. With food, it's best to keep them indoors. Like some have mentioned, what if it got poisoned instead?"

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rainercheung@asiaone.com