Light relief: Fort Hotel gets its property back

A thief who stole a light from the busy bar of a Broughty Ferry hotel has returned the £500 fitting after the threat of exposure online.

As we reported, the light was snatched over the heads of bar staff as they served customers in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Publican John Black threatened to post CCTV images of the theft on Facebook in a bid to expose the thief.

The custom-made light, worth around £500, was taken by a female customer while Mr Black bent down to pick up a glass.

There were over 10 bar staff working at the time but no one noticed the woman remove the light fitting.

However, CCTV captured her stealing the light and laughing about the incident for the next five minutes.

Although Mr Black was criticised for using social media to highlight the crime, he said he was happy his methods had led to the light’s recovery.

“A big thank you to all those who passed on our post of our missing light. The light was returned yesterday,” he said.

The woman who took the light was said to be “highly apologetic” about the incident.

She told staff she had not expected the fixture to come away from the ceiling when she pulled it on Saturday night.