Shop owner gets £100 and apology 15 years after student stole sign

A shop owner who received an anonymous apology and £100 in cash for a theft which took place 15 years ago has said he would "love to find out who it is".

The letter was sent to Exotica Foods, an international supermarket in Swansea, by someone who said they had stolen a sign from the store as a student.

In the note, the sender said they and another student had taken a temporary PVC banner from outside the shop after "a night of drinking".

The shop's owner Imran Ashraf said: "I'd love to find out who it is, it would be quite funny."

The sender's identity remains unknown however the letter was postmarked in west Yorkshire.

The letter said: "Some 15 years ago as a student, following a night of drinking, I and another came across a temporary PVC banner hanging from your shop. For some reason we thought it would be funny to bring this home with us.

"As an older man, I now see that what seemed funny to us at the time, likely caused your shop some inconvenience. I would like to offer my apology and hope you will accept this compensation."

The envelope contained £100 in £20 notes, and was signed: "A former foolish student."

Ashraf said: "When I read it, it made me laugh. It's not the kind of thing you see, not the kind of thing that happens usually."

He said the stolen sign was being used temporarily for a year while they saved thousands for a permanent sign.

"We thought someone thought that's temporary, enough of this thing now," Ashraf said.

"Obviously we were ticked off when it got taken.

"But it was properly secured up there with these ties, it was massive and heavy.

"So how they took it down and got it home, it's like fair play."

The £100 he received goes "nowhere near the cost of it", he said, adding the temporary sign cost about £1,200 before the cost of putting it up.

He said on Facebook that the money would "hopefully go towards a custom gazebo for outside the shop so we can start doing some cooking videos this summer".

Locals praised the sender for making amends, with one writing: "A lovely, kind gesture to make up for foolish actions from years ago."

Another added: "We've all done silly things at some point, well done to the foolish student."