A thief in Inverness has been dubbed an “utter low life” by the owners of an ice cream parlour after stealing a charity collection box.
Staff at Miele’s Gelateria gave a customer the benefit of the doubt when his card was declined – and let him have his cone for free.
But it was the next day before they noticed the Cash For Kids donation tin had gone – and CCTV told them who the culprit was.
Now a social media post of CCTV footage of the theft has been watched more than 36,000 times and shared more than 1,500 times.
The incident happened on Saturday around 9.30pm at Miele’s Gelateria on Church Street but the box, holding an estimated £200, was only noticed as missing on Sunday.
The owner Michael Miele, 24, said: “He came in, he looked a bit suspicious, a bit dodgy, but we take every customer as they come because you don’t know who people are.”
After ordering a cone the man was unable to pay because of his card not working so Mr Miele showed him “a bit of goodwill” and said he could pay another time.
Mr Miele said: “He has walked around the shop and eyed up the situation as he’s been walking round and planned it all out and then left the door open.”
In the footage the as yet unidentified man can be seen behaving nervously before leaving and then waiting for the server to turn her back to sneak in and grab the box.
Mr Miele is furious not just that the thief took advantage of the initial kindness shown to him but that he “took from kids, kids who have nothing”.
“It is out there so that everybody can see who this guy is and also so that other people and other businesses don’t have the same problem.
“We are delighted with the response that we have seen on Facebook and our social media has been going berserk about it.
“People on there were actually donating online to Cash for Kids, which is absolutely wonderful.”
He added: “It just shows you the community-feel that everybody tries to get together when something happens to make up for this minority.”
A Police Scotland spokesman confirmed inquiries into the theft were at an early stage and investigations were ongoing.
