Featherston's Brac and Bow bar manager Debbie Sinclair pictured with Ed Sheeran. Photo: Supplied
A Wairarapa bar manager's concern for a sting operation led to her asking British pop star Ed Sheeran for his ID.
At the weekend, Debbie Sinclair was working at Featherston's Brac and Bow when two men and a women came into the pub.
Unknown to her at the time, one of those men was 31-year-old Sheeran.
"The way the other man was, I thought 'oh my god, is this a sting?'" Brac and Bow bar manager Debbie Sinclair
Sinclair told Morning Report Sheeran approached the bar and asked her what they had on tap.
At the time, she thought he looked a bit like the superstar but did not say anything to him.
He ordered two Castle Lager and a bowl of fries.
But because of the man Sheeran had come into the bar with, Sinclair was a bit "on edge".
"The way the other man was, I thought 'oh my god, is this a sting?' So I thought, 'I'm not going to risk it', so I said 'oh, have you got ID?'."
"I was just worried there was something going on that kind of put me on edge a little bit so I thought, 'no, I better do my job'."
Instead of showing his identification, Sheeran pulled out his credit card, which had his name on it.
At the same time, Sinclair's boss came over to check the card.
While putting his order through the till, Sinclair commented on how much he looked like Sheeran.
Her boss told her: "Debbie ... he is who you think he is."
A fan of Sheeran's, Sinclair said she was surprised to see him in the pub.
"He was so lovely," she said.
Upon delivering the fries to Sheeran and his group, she asked if he would take a photo with her - which he agreed to doing before he left.
Sinclair said had she not asked for his ID, she probably would not have known for sure that it was Sheeran in her pub.