A brazen serial shoplifter attempted to loot the tip jar at Cafe Divis for an unbelievable fifth time on Sunday, only to be chased down by employees and eventually arrested.
An employee who was working at the cafe that day described it as a typical but “really busy” day, when suddenly, around noon, he heard a customer exclaim, “Hey, they work hard for those tips!” He turned quickly and spotted the suspect, whom he immediately recognized.
“This man had stolen tips from Cafe Divis at least 4 times in the past two months,” the employee tells Haighteration.
So, he and another employee raced to the exit, blocking the man from leaving the cafe and reminding him that he had been banned from the premises. It was only then that a customer alerted the employees that the suspect had stolen from the tip jar. The suspect then managed to escape, and ran out onto Divisadero, heading south.
The two chased him, catching up with the alleged thief a block or so away. Initially the man was resistant, but as one of the cafe’s employees began to call the police, the man finally began to empty his pockets.
Even with the money retrieved, the employees kept an eye on the man until police arrived on the scene, finally arresting the suspect near Haight and Scott. The Examiner reports that the suspect, a 63-year-old South of Market man, was later charged with burglary and petty theft.
While retrieving the stolen tips was certainly gratifying, the employee tells us that he was just happy to be “able to help with the arrest on behalf of all of the shopowners and neighboring establishments from whom this guy has been stealing for years. He literally has over 78 arrests and has been doing the same rounds for 15 years,” he tells us.
So, if you stop by Cafe Divis any time soon, be sure to thank these brave gentlemen for helping to take another thug off the streets!