Featuring an image of Clarkson, the beer mats urge customers not to steal Hawkstone pint glasses, warning “Jeremy is watching. Don’t steal his pint glasses!”
A post on the pub’s Instagram page said: “Feel free to take our new beer mats, but please don’t steal our Hawkstone pint glasses! Happy New Year.”
The former Top Gear host turned farmer and publican opened The Farmer’s Dog near Burford, which sells his Diddly Squat Farm-brewed Hawkstone beer brand, in August 2024.
Clarkson recently wrote in his column for The Sunday Times about the struggles faced by pubs, adding the level of glass theft at The Farmer’s Dog had been “extraordinary”.
He wrote: “People seem to have it in their heads that if they come in for a pint they are entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served.
Cost pressures
“[One] Sunday 104 went missing. And that cost must be added to the £100 a day we spend on fuel for the generator, the £400 a week it costs to provide warmth on the terrace and the £27,000 a month we must spend on parking and traffic marshals to keep the council off our back.
“And that’s before you get to the cost of employing people in Starmer’s Britain these days.”
However, Clarkson is not the first to introduce a deterrent against glass theft.
In 2023 BrewDog called an amnesty for thieves of its Hazy Jane glasses, offering free refills for customers returning them to one of its bars.
The glass was described as the Scottish brewer and bar operator’s “most stolen glass ever”.
Missing glasses
Almost eight in 10 operators reported glassware thefts were an issue, according to a flash poll conducted by The Morning Advertise (The MA).
Of the 204 respondents, more than three quarters (77%) said they did suffer from glass thefts at their pub.
Meanwhile research from catering equipment supplier Nisbets some 15-months ago revealed more than 4m Brits steal tableware from a pub, bar or restaurant more than once a week.
It also found more than 37m Brits have stolen glasses from bars and restaurants in their homes, with the biggest culprits being 18 to 24-year-olds and 25 to 34-year-olds.
Overall, 17m British adults (27%) revealed they had stolen tableware from a pub, bar or restaurant.
