CCTV footage at the Three Cups in Stamford Bridge, York, shows a man approach the bar, grab the box and flee.
Team leader and barman at the pub Adam Green described the incident: “He came into the bar and said he was waiting for his daughter. While staff were serving further down the bar he cut the string of the charity box with scissors, it was tied to a beer pump.”
The thief then hid the box behind the menu, and made off with it - taking with him an estimated £80 of customers’ generous donations to Prostate Cancer UK.
Green said he’d never seen the perpetrator before, whose face is shielded in the footage by a black cap.
He’s not been caught yet, but in reaction regulars and staff have banded together to more than double the total stolen, so far raising £190.
Green described the crook’s actions as “low”, but praises the response from the community.
“People have been really supportive, it’s mostly regular customers, they don’t want the charity to miss out,” he said.
The pub always makes sure it has a box on the bar to raise funds, and licensee Matthew Watkins was not prepared to see the charity miss out, so set up a JustGiving page to compensate.
He said: “After someone stole a charity box from my bar in York I feel that the only people losing out is the charity, and that cannot happen in my eyes.”
Donate at: www.justgiving.com/ThreeCups