A restaurant is searching for a brazen thief who stole an entire designer kitchen sink from their toilets and smuggled it out in her handbag.
Robert Melman, 72, says he has ‘seen a lot of things’ in the 25 years he’s spent in the hospitality business since moving over to England from Argentina.
But the owner of Jardim Rodizio Grill in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was left taken aback when a member of his cleaning staff sent him a photo showing one of their £150 sinks had gone missing.
After checking CCTV from the evening of Thursday, February 20, Robert could see what appeared to be a woman entering the toilets with a large black bag which looks empty.
Then footage from 10 minutes later shows what appears to be the woman walking out with the same bag, which is now bulging.
Robert said: ‘I’ve seen a lot of things in hospitality – knives, forks, some glasses.
‘I have had a lot of experience of people that steal from me. Wines, when I had other restaurants and the wine was on exhibition.
‘I never thought I’m going to see this, it’s very good that she didn’t need the toilet. Otherwise she would have taken the toilet.’
Both the sink and its attached pipes are now gone from the restaurant, which has private cubicles with their own mirrors and sinks for each customer toilet.
Baffled Robert said: ‘The only thing that surprised me is how the person knew that it’s very easy access to that, and that it would be very easy to dismantle.
‘What I can think is maybe it was a customer who came one day, checked, and then came another day to do the job?
‘To be honest, I have no idea what to think. It’s very unusual, it’s very unusual.’
The CCTV even appears to show the woman stopping by the restaurant’s buffet as she leaves, but she doesn’t take any food.
Robert added: ‘She was passing the buffet and she was thinking maybe to have some food as well, with her hands.
‘Thank god she didn’t take anything.’
The restaurant owner, who moved from Huddersfield to Manchester 10 years ago, says he hasn’t reported the theft to police as he believes they have ‘other important things’ to deal with.
However, it’s not the first theft he’s experienced at the restaurant.
Just months ago, Robert says, he had a £3,000 electric bicycle stolen in seconds after somebody forced their way into the establishment.
However, the restaurant owner says police were able to find and jail the thief.
Robert added: ‘I don’t think for this thing I need to bother the police, I don’t know.’
MailOnline has contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.
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