Darwin cafe Mamma’s Kitchen robbed in midnight meat heist, incident caught on CCTV

A local business owner whose freezer was plundered of an estimated $1k worth of meat has taken to social media in the hopes of identifying the culprit. Watch the video.

A local business owner whose freezer was plundered of an estimated $1k worth of meat has taken to social media in the hopes of identifying the culprit.

The owner of Mamma’s Kitchen Bree O’Kane recently endured a second hit, when her Palmerston venue was raided in the dead of night.

On January 18 a man broke into her venue’s cool room and he helped himself to up to $1000 worth of meat.

Leaving the veggies behind, the man stashed the stolen goods into the back of his car before taking off.

The whole incident was caught on CCTV.

The next morning, Ms O’Kane and her staff were at a loss as to where their ingredients had disappeared to.

“I’m scratching my head going ‘I know we had this’” she told this masthead.

“Then we started to piece some things together and luckily there’s very good security cameras around.”

The man took the meat and cleaned his fingerprints before leaving the premises.

On reviewing the footage, Ms O’Kane noted the man did not seem bothered by the possibility of being caught.

“The security light came on, he didn’t even look up,” she said.

“He just casually strolled through like it didn’t matter, he had all the time in the world to take what he needed, clean his fingerprints off and off he went (on) like he was another staff member.”

While the incident hurt her business and disrupted her time and energy, Ms O’Kane said she wouldn’t let the negative episode bring her down.

“It’s pretty funny and I think you have to be resilient as a business owner,” she said.

“I read and hear about local small businesses being broken into and it’s unfortunate, it’s happening everywhere.

“What do you do? You just have to become resilient.”

Ms O’Kane has previously ousted an offender on the internet. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Ms O’Kane said she was not going to let the meat thief’s actions go unnoticed by the community, and uploaded the footage online.

“(I did it) just to let him know this is unacceptable – you’re taking things off hard working people, that this is my life and my family’s life and I don’t have business partners and millions of dollars behind me,” she said.

“I don’t want him to think there’s a free butcher down here and he can come whenever he wants.”

NT Police continue to look for the man, while members of public have also expressed their support for the popular business.

Ms O’Kane has previously posted about robberies online with much success.

In 2024, Mamma’s Kitchen in Coolalinga Central was broken into by a man who tried to bust open the safe.

After circulating the footage online, the culprit was arrested and sentenced.

She hopes a similar outcome occurs for the latest incident.

“I feel a bit silly going to the police about it, but if we can find out who he is then maybe it can save them some jobs later.”