A thief walked into the Canyon Country coffee shop the other day, talked casually to the barista, waited for her to step away and then stole the tip jar, a store manager said Tuesday.
The bold daylight theft at 12:40 p.m. June 12 stunned Stephanie Inmon, who manages the Bodhi Leaf Coffee Traders inside the strip plaza of shops on Soledad Canyon Road just east of Bouquet Canyon Road.
The thief was seen driving away from the coffee shop in a Mercedes-Benz.
“You need $20 that badly when you driving a Mercedes?” Inmon asked Tuesday. “I’d like him to get caught. We have a tip jar out for our employees,” she said. “People work hard for the money they get.”
The suspect seen on film is wearing a checkered shirt, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. Inmon filed a report with deputies of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
“I’ve heard it’s a common thing,” she said about tip-jar thefts.
In January last year, thieves smashed the storefront glass of two Jersey Mike’s Subs and one Little Caesars Pizza location, ransacked the businesses and, in at least one case, stole a tip jar containing money.
Inmon said she hopes someone recognizes last week’s thief from the video surveillance footage.
Will she move the tip jar off the counter?
“I could chain the jar to the counter, but I don’t want to feel like I have to hide things,” Inmon said. “I feel like we live in a safe community.”
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