Coronavirus Gold Coast: Tobacco Supermart Southport CCTV films man nabbing sanitiser provided for community use

“The entire bottle was taken by the man. It’s very upsetting to see because this is absolutely selfish.”

SANITISER is like liquid gold in the coronavirus pandemic, prompting a Gold Coast business to place a bottle of the sought-after substance at its door to help the public protect themselves.

But CCTV footage provided to the Bulletin shows an unidentified man sanitising his hands before glancing about and shoving the bottle in his bag.

Tobacco Supermart Southport manager Elsa Che said the shop has also been handing out complimentary face masks to help fight the spread of COVID-19.

She said it was sad to watch the “selfish” sanitiser bandit snatch the product from the front of the shop. The incident occurred about 11.50am on Friday.

“The entire bottle was taken by the man. It’s very upsetting to see because this is absolutely selfish,” Ms Che said.

CCTV footage from Tobacco Supermart Southport shows the unidentified man sanitising his hands and glancing around before taking the whole bottle.

“It’s immoral to the community. We want to share with others, it’s not just for him.

“It’s very hard to find masks and sanitiser. We preordered and got some, but it’s very limited.”

Ms Che said the shop was not only trying to help protect the wider community, but was encouraging customers to sanitise to protect workers.

“It’s a tough time for everyone, including local business, and we wanted to contribute to the community and we’re hoping everyone stays safe. That’s why we put out the complimentary sanitiser and masks, free to the public,” she said.

Ms Che said customers have been thankful for the freebies.

“But we feel like we’re supposed to do that (help out), we just want to share what we have,” she said.

CCTV footage from Tobacco Supermart Southport shows the unidentified man shoving the complimentary sanitiser into a plastic bag.

The shop has not reported the incident to police. Ms Che said officers probably have more pressing matters to deal with.

“It’s just a bottle of sanitiser, but it means a lot to people at this tough time.”

The shop has been a bit quieter than normal due to social distancing measures reducing foot traffic on the streets, Ms Che said.

Sanitiser has been in such short supply in Queensland and across the country that distillers have switched up their operations in a bid to meet demand.

Some people have also resorting to making their own homemade sanitiser with instructions doing the rounds on social media.