These are the things our readers steal most from restaurants and cafés, part 2

By now, we know that there are quite a few guilty restaurant and café thieves among our readers. What I didn’t expect were the reactions from readers proudly listing the items they had stolen that weren’t included yet. We took stock once again.

€1,200 in damages per year

Before we list all the things you shamelessly stuff into your pockets again, let’s refer to a study by Misset Horeca. They researched guest kleptomania in the hospitality industry. What did they find? 96% of hospitality businesses have to deal with restaurant and café thieves! On average, the annual damage amounts to as much as €1,200 per business! Think about that the next time you hide a salt shaker in your bra…

Tea bags

I did the math. One tea bag (Pickwick English Tea) costs €0.04 per bag at Albert Heijn. Is that worth the guilt? Really? 

Toilet spray

Someone responded to the post about restaurant and café thieves: “At our place, it’s mainly the toilet spray that gets stolen. So we removed it… From now on, we’ll spray it ourselves.” That’s utterly ridiculous—as if hospitality staff weren’t already busy enough, now they also have to walk to the toilet twice an hour (if not more) just to spray it.

In the sports and games category

An entire dartboard, table tennis paddles, a complete Monopoly game and the bell from Halli Galli. You really seem to be turning it into a sport.

Menus and menu holders

Menus? Why? If you want to remember what’s on the menu, take a photo. Or ask if you can take a menu with you (surely that’s allowed). Menu holders. For your dinners at home with friends? I assume you also stole the ingredients from Albert Heijn, as befits a proper thief.

Ashtrays

Of course—an easy target. Your prey is already outside, so you don’t even have to carry it past the bartenders and out the door. Seems like a stealing target for the least courageous hospitality thieves to me. So it’s no surprise that this is one of the most frequently stolen items.

Art

I thought it was a unique situation when a drunk customer at the pub where I worked tried to grab a painting off the wall. The painting was hanging there as part of an exhibition. After wrenching the painting from his hands and throwing him out, I thought, ‘What an idiot.’ Surely no one else does this. But no. Because of the comment “little paintings from our ladies’ bathroom” under our earlier Facebook post, I’m starting to think differently.

Glasses

Of course—glasses. They can’t be left off the list. The number-one stolen product. Whiskey glasses, iced tea glasses, Chocomel mugs, pitchers; everything is fun to have at home.

Picnic table

This one did surprise me. A picnic table. That’s pretty impressive. It’s like stealing a Smart car.

Soap

But only the Rituals kind… Honestly: in the toilets of the café where FavorFlav’s Lauretta worked, the Rituals soap dispensers had to be replaced every week. “At some point, we switched to cheap soap. Fortunately, people did leave that alone. And this was in Amsterdam South… You’d think people here would have enough money for their own toilet soap, wouldn’t you?”

Read also: 

• Dear restaurant and café thieves, stop stealing 
• It’s clear: this is what you steal most from restaurants and cafés
• Hungry? Then you’re allowed to steal food in Italy