The Great (Food) Bank Heist

by Onjali Q. Raúf

  “Mum, where did you get so much money from all of a sudden?” I asked as I helped set the table for what was going to be the best meal we had had in ages. I knew her payday wasn’t for at least another week.

  “Oh … just a bit of luck!” said Mum, giving me a wink.

  And then suddenly I noticed it – the thing that was different …

  It was the empty space on her finger.

  “Mum!” I cried out. “Nan’s ring …”

  Heading over to the fridge, Mum opened the door and pretended she was looking for something inside it. My insides were getting too heavy, so I went and opened a cupboard door and put my head inside that.

  We always ended up like that whenever I found out that Mum had paid a visit to the pawn shop.

  When I was little, I used to think pawn shops had made a spelling mistake and that they sold prawns but had just forgotten to put the “r” in. But they hadn’t, because they don’t really sell anything at all. Not even prawns.

  They let you borrow money in exchange for your most precious, most expensive things. And then, if you ever earn enough money again, you can go and buy your things back from them. But that never happens. Not for Mum anyway.

  As I sat with my head in the cupboard, I made a promise that when I grew up, I would get a job that paid me millions of pounds and I would go and buy back Nan’s ring just as quick as I could!

  But for now, I wouldn’t let Mum take any more of her things to the pawn shop. Nan’s ring had to be the last pawn – ever! So as I waited for Mum to leave the fridge, I decided Krish was right. It was time to make a stake-out plan and catch the food bank thieves.

  CHAPTER 7

  Stake-Outs

  The next morning at school, I told Krish he had been right and that we needed to do a stake-out.

  “You mean it? Really?” asked Krish. He gave me a happy punch on the arm and started jumping up and down on the spot too.

  “Let’s do it today! After school,” said Harriet, pulling us all together so no one could hear what we were saying. “We could run down to Gladstores – it’s only a few minutes away!”

  “But I’ve got Ashley, remember?” I reminded her. “AND I need to be home before Mum gets in.”

  “You can just come for a short while then,” answered Harriet. “And me and Krish can stay a little bit longer! Yeah?”

  Krish nodded, and so did I. So right after school, we all ran to Gladstores. I told Ashley we were playing a special game and that if she was good, she could have something I had saved for her from my school dinner as a treat.

  When we got to the supermarket, we tried to secretly spy on the food bank trolleys by walking up and down the aisles and watching the people who put things in the trolleys. But we didn’t see anything weird going on.

  We did the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next. But all we saw were lots of people putting things into the food bank trolleys.

  “This isn’t working,” said Krish, after we had been to the supermarket every day after school for nearly two weeks. By now the security guard was beginning to give us strange looks – he probably thought we were trying to steal something. “Maybe the thieves have got kids, so they don’t do any robbing after they’ve picked them up from school?”

  “Maybe,” said Harriet. “What we really need is a whole day to try and catch them … I know! Why don’t we try this Saturday?”

  “Yeah,” I cried. “Mum has to work on Saturday, so she’ll be dropping me and Ashley off at yours anyway.”

  “Yeah, I know,” answered Harriet, looking at me as if I was stupid. “That’s why I said Saturday in the first place!”

  “Cool,” I replied.

  “And that gives us a few days to plan and train hard so we can be super-fast and sneaky and strong,” added Krish. “I know all about that stuff, so I’ll train you both. Deal?”

  I nodded and so did Harriet. But then she added, “But I’ll do the planning! So you have to listen to me about that. OK?”

  Krish and me nodded, and over the next few days we planned our big stake-out and did lots of training. Harriet drew out a plan on four pieces of paper stuck together with tape, and Krish trained us at break-times and lunch-times so we’d be extra fit and strong.

  The training was mostly zig-zag running through the playground at top speed, just like Noah Equiano did on the football pitch, and doing karate chops and flying kicks, even in the middle of class. Everyone thought we were weird, but it was fun, so we didn’t care.

  By Friday night, we were ready.

  On Saturday morning, after Mum had kissed me and Ashley goodbye, Harriet’s mum took us upstairs to Harriet’s room. Krish was already there, playing a computer game with Harriet as they waited for us – along with a mini mountain of food. That was the best thing about Harriet’s house. There were always mini mountains of food everywhere.

  As soon as Harriet’s mum had shut the bedroom door behind her and we heard her head back downstairs, we all set to work.

  I quickly packed all the food into mine and Ashley’s rucksacks. Harriet got four tubs of bright green and purple slime from under her bed and packed them into hers. She also switched on her speaker so that, together with her computer game, everything in her room sounded noisy and busy. Then she sneaked downstairs to get our coats. She made it back without being seen and helped me zip up Ashley’s coat and explain to her that we were going on an extra-special secret adventure.

  Krish had disappeared to the bathroom and suddenly came back into the room wearing a Spiderman ski mask and carrying something red and sticky and wrapped in plastic in both his hands.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Krish with their mouths open. Even Ashley.

  “Erm … why have you brought ACTUAL steaks to a stake-out?” asked Harriet, her nose all scrunched up.

  “D’uh! There might be dogs,” said Krish as he squeezed the two steaks into the back pockets of his jeans. “This will distract them. I got them from the shop next door to my house. But I can’t touch them or anything because I’m Hindu and Mum and Dad will have a fit. It’s disgusting even holding them! Eugh!”

  Harriet turned to look at me with her mouth still open, but I understood Krish’s point. “He might be right about the dogs,” I said. “It’s all right, Krish, I’ll unwrap them and throw them for you.”

  Krish nodded, looking as happy as a Hindu vegetarian with meat in his pockets could.

  “Anyway, why have you got a MASSIVE box of donuts and a flask?” asked Krish, pointing at the box of twelve donuts and the Thermos flask Harriet was holding.

  “Because that’s what you have to eat on a stake-out – donuts and coffee. That’s what they do in ALL the movies,” she replied.

  I grinned. When Harriet wasn’t watching Formula One, she was always watching cop dramas. Especially American ones. That might be why she had stolen her older sister’s long brown coat that was too big for her, and a big hat. She was clearly trying to look like the detective from her favourite TV show.

  “Got the plan?” I asked Harriet. I was starting to feel nervous.

  Harriet nodded and took it out of her coat pocket.

  We all looked down at it again. Harriet had drawn in all the different aisles and where the food bank donation trolleys were. And, of course, where the security guard always stood.

  Then, in glittery green, purple and blue pen, she had drawn big fat arrows to show what we were all supposed to do.

  “Here, take the whistles,” Harriet ordered as she gave me and Krish a silver whistle each. “I’ve wiped them super clean,” she added. “Mum’s always leaving them all over the house.”

  Harriet’s mum was a football coach, so she had at least five hundred whistles that she was always losing. She even kept some in her socks because she said that was the best place for a spare one.

  “OK. Ready?” asked Krish. His voice sounded odd because of the Spiderman mask.

  We all nodded to each other and then looked
down at Ashley.

  “Remember, it’s a secret, Ashley. We’re going on a secret adventure, so you have to listen to me. OK?” I asked her. But she was so excited that Harriet was letting her take her hand that she didn’t really listen to anything I was saying.

  Sneaking out of Harriet’s room, we all crept down the stairs and towards the front door. Harriet’s dad was at his restaurant, so we didn’t need to worry about him, but her mum and big sister were downstairs in the living room. Luckily they were talking loudly on their phones and watching TV too.

  “Quick!” hissed Harriet as she opened the door and rushed us all out. She closed it again very slowly so that only a small “click” could be heard. Then, waving to us all to copy her and crouch down, we ran past the living-room window and out through the front gate.

  “Phew!” said Krish as we got to the end of the road and stood up straight again. “That was easy.”

  “Again, again!” cried Ashley. She thought it was all a big game we were playing for fun.

  “Later,” I promised as we began to walk faster and faster towards Gladstores.

  Gladstores was only a short walk away, but we felt nervous suddenly, and hungry too, so we each had a donut for luck and then tried the coffee. It was horrible!

  As the sign for Gladstores got closer and closer, I could tell Krish and Harriet were asking the same questions in their heads as I was. Questions like: were we ever really going to catch anyone – what if they were too clever for us? What if Harriet’s mum or sister went up to Harriet’s room and found us all gone? What if we didn’t catch anyone at all and got into trouble anyway?

  Then, suddenly, we were at the giant sliding doors of the supermarket and the huge sign that said “WELCOME”.

  It was time for us to split up and try to catch a thief …

  CHAPTER 8

  Supermarket Sweep

  Harriet went inside first. She gave us a thumbs up and a nervous smile and marched straight up the fruit aisle in her long coat and big hat. Her job was to watch the back exit doors, the ones with the long pieces of plastic on them that the supermarket workers always vanished behind.

  Next it was Krish’s turn. He waited until two people with a trolley walked past us, and then he walked after them as if he was part of their family. His job was to walk up and down the different aisles and see if he could spot anything fishy. Apart from actual fish, of course.

  Then it was my turn.

  I took Ashley’s hand and went inside, heading straight for the magazine racks. From there I could keep a close watch on the food bank donation trolleys, which were always parked in between the newspaper stand and the red post office box right by the front door. Hanging from the ceiling was a bright green sign that said: “FOOD BANK DONATIONS”.

  I gave Ashley a comic about turtles to flick through and made her sit on the floor so that it looked as if we were waiting for our mum or dad. I watched the donation trolleys. There were three. One was very full, one was only half full, and the last one was almost empty.

  I watched and watched and watched the trolleys as lots of people dropped things into them on their way out. Most put in all the normal things, like boxes of cereals and tins of tomatoes and packets of pasta. But some people put strange things in too: like an old man who put in five packets of chewing gum and a bunch of flowers. And a woman who put in seven packets of red chillies and a basil plant.

  “I don’t want to read any more,” said Ashley, hugging Freddy and standing up. “I want to go back to Harriet’s house and play!”

  “If you read something else, I’ll give you some crisps,” I offered as I took a bright pink packet of prawn cocktail flavour crisps from my rucksack and held them out to her.

  Ashley nodded and sat back down. As she crunched and gobbled, I gave her another comic to look through and went back to watching the trolleys.

  And just as I was beginning to think that no one was stealing from the food bank at all, I saw it happen! The sneakiest of sneak attacks ever!

  A man and a woman had stopped by the newspaper stand, pushing a trolley with just two packets of biscuits and a bottle of water in it. They looked as if they were choosing a newspaper to buy, but then suddenly they were gone! They had switched their nearly empty trolley with the food bank trolley full of donations and now they were on their way out of the store with it as if it was theirs!

  I blinked hard to check my eyes had seen right and then looked over at the security guard station – but there was no one there! The thieves must have seen that too! So I did the next best thing: I blew on my whistle just as hard as I could and pointed at the couple, shouting, “STOP! FOOD BANK THIEVES!”

  The man and the woman looked back at me for a split second and then began to run out of the store. From somewhere behind me, I could hear Harriet and Krish blowing their whistles too, which meant they had heard me and were on their way – but they were going to be too late!

  I snatched a trolley that was standing next to me – I didn’t care that it had some tins and boxes in it. Then I swooped up Ashley and her rucksack, plonked them into it and ran after the thieves.

  As I zigged and zagged and zoomed the trolley past lots of other trolleys, Ashley clapped her hands and giggled. But just as I pushed us out of the main exit doors, the alarms began to sound! My trolley of unpaid food had set everything off!

  “WHEEEEEEEE-WHEEEEEEEEEE!” cried Ashley even louder as I sprinted out into the car park.

  From somewhere behind me, someone shouted, “OI! YOU KIDS THERE! STOP!”

  I ran even faster, trying to see where the man and woman had gone – but there were so many people and too many cars …

  A few seconds later, Harriet and Krish came crashing into me.

  “Where … where … what …?” asked Krish.

  “Trolley switchers!” I tried to explain. “They – they switched a nearly empty trolley for one of the donation ones! And they ran out here, but now I can’t see them!”

  “CREEPS!” shouted Harriet, hoping they could hear her.

  “OI! YOU KIDS THERE! STOP!”

  “Oh no! Security guard!” warned Harriet as we switched directions and began to run away from him too.

  “Here! Take this!” I cried out to Harriet as I pushed the trolley with Ashley in it over to her.

  I jumped up onto the nearest trolley park fence and tried to spot the thieves one last time.

  “OVER THERE!” I shouted, pointing at a white van parked in the back corner of the car park. “QUICK!”

  I set off towards the van, running so fast that I couldn’t feel my legs any more. I could hear Ashley beginning to cry, but I couldn’t stop. Just as I reached the van, the man and woman jumped into their seats and slammed the doors shut. We were too late!

  “NOT SO FAST!” screamed Harriet as she and Ashley and their trolley reached me. She ripped open her rucksack, grabbed one of the tubs of slime and began throwing handfuls of it at the van just as fast as she could. In a few seconds, green splodges of oozy slime began to dribble and drool off the van windows and doors.

  The van jumped forwards with a growl, making us all jump back a step.

  “TAKE – THIS – ROBBERS!” panted Krish. He pushed his hands into his back pockets and pulled out the steaks. Pulling open the packet with a large “EUGH!”, he threw the meat towards the van’s windscreen.

  We watched as the two big red steaks flew through the air and landed with loud thuds on the van’s big front window.

  “HA HA! Got you!” shouted Krish as a shower of crisps and chocolate splatted onto the van windows and stuck to the slime. Harriet and I had taken everything we had in our rucksacks and were throwing them at the van just as fast as we could.

  “This is fun!” giggled Ashley as she threw crisps and hungrily stuck some into her mouth too. I wished we could have taken all the treats home instead, but we had to stop the thieves!

  “GET OUT OF THE WAY, KIDS! BEFORE I REALLY HURT YA!” shouted the man in the van as he rolle
d down his window and stuck his head out, before making the van roar again.

  When we didn’t move, the man switched the headlights on and shook his fist at us.

  “You better move!” screamed the woman, rolling her window down too. “He doesn’t like kids who damage his van!”

  “Yeah! Well, WE don’t like thieves who steal our food!” I shouted.

  Harriet pushed the trolley with Ashley in it out of the way, and Krish ran off to the side as the van roared again and jumped forwards.

  But I didn’t move.

  The van roared again and again, and flashed its headlights at me like a giant monster.

  But still I didn’t move. Even though now I was getting scared.

  The man behind the wheel was getting redder and angrier with every second.

  “Nelson! Get out of the way!” shouted Krish as Ashley began to cry.

  “NO!” I shouted back. “They’re thieves! They’re making other people go hungry! I won’t move!”

  From all around us, more and more people were beginning to stop to watch and listen. That was good, so I carried on shouting.

  “THEY’RE FOOD BANK THIEVES! THEY SWITCHED THEIR TROLLEY AND TOOK THE DONATION TROLLEY!”

  Inside the van, the man began to look around as if now he was the one getting scared. And the woman had put her head in her hands as if she wanted to hide.

  “That’s awful!” I heard someone say.

  “That’s shocking!” cried a lady. “Someone call the police!”

  “Why’s that van covered with slime and meat, Daddy?” someone else asked.

  The van growled and roared again as the man inside shouted, “GET OUT OF MY WAY, KID! OR I’LL RUN YOU DOWN!”

  A long, loud beep made me take a step back. But then someone suddenly stepped out in front of me.

  It was an old man.

  And a few seconds later, a younger woman joined him.