Man stuck with $10,000 stockpile of toilet paper and hand sanitiser after trying to get a refund from the supermarket

During the coronavirus crisis we’ve seen several ugly instances of people trying to profit off the scary and uncertain circumstances of the pandemic.

Remember the man who was stuck with 17,000 bottles of hand sanitiser because he bought in bulk hoping to profit online? Well now he might have met his match after an Australian man has been found hoarding £5,000 (around 10,000 Australian dollars) worth of goods that he tried to sell online, including 132 packs of toilet paper rolls.

Hilariously, the Adelaide man was left high and dry after unsuccessfully attempting to return his stash, which included toilet paper and 150 one-litre bottles of hand sanitiser. When the supermarket refused to refund him, he was left with £5,000 worth of essentials he doesn’t need.

According to The Telegraph, the man began hoarding goods when coronavirus panic buying hit. Drakes Supermarkets director John-Paul Drake said the man was part of a team of hoarders planning to profit from shortages caused by their own panic buying.

But the man’s attempts to sell the goods online fell flat.

Drake told ABC Radio that the man bought around £10,000 worth of goods, but couldn’t sell them when his eBay account was shut down in an effort by the online marketplace to crack down on this precise sort of behaviour. (eBay, we salute you!)

The store manager didn’t hold back in his criticism of hoarding, saying the man’s actions were “absolutely disgraceful”.

The rest of my team is over this sort of behaviour and having to police people taking more than they need – that’s a tough thing to deal with…

I never thought I’d be in the situation that I’m seeing here. We’re not used to it. No one is used to it, when people take advantage of the system.

The news comes after two women in Sydney were charged with affray for hoarding toilet paper. Most Australian supermarkets, like the UK, have introduced limits on the number of items shoppers can buy. Australia was one of the first nations to be hit by panic buying back in March, when toilet paper vanished from the shelves.