By SONJA KOREMANS
A LOCAL business owner has given a thumbs down and hands off to the brazen thief who swiped his shop’s hard-earned tips.
Warwick Eagle Boys Pizza franchisee John Rye was stunned to the find a charity jar at the store had been filched on Friday night.
The shop proudly donates tips from generous customers – hundreds of dollars a year – to Muscular Dystrophy Queensland.
So Mr Rye and his staff were upset to discover the tips had been stolen from their counter after a busy night.
“The thief took off with wads of notes leaving the jar behind,“ Mr Rye said.
Friday nights are non-stop at the store so at first no one noticed the money had been stolen until a customer wanting to tip asked where it had gone, he said.
“It’s hard to know how much was in the tip jar, it had been there a while on a busy night,” Mr Rye said.
“I was about to empty the jar too as I was thinking it was time to send the money to muscular dystrophy.“
Mr Rye said he was surprised by the sly act.
“We’ve never had anyone steal our tips, I’ve been here eight years,“ he said.
“I don’t want to point the finger at customers as it may have been someone just driving through town.
”The store’s CCTV footage could not reveal how it happened and Mr Rye hasn’t alerted police as he said did not want to take up their time.
An Indian restaurant in the same shopping centre on the corner of Fitzroy and Albion streets has also been recently targeted by thieves.
The offender or offenders attempted to break-in through the back of the Shalimar Indian Restaurant after shutting the centre’s power down last month, Mr Rye said.
