GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Happy Cat Cafe in Grand Rapids was saving up donations for Fig and Friends Pet Rescue. Those donations were gathered in a jar on the counter for customers to contribute funds to help rescue other animals.
Around 5 p.m. on Saturday, however, that jar was stolen when the barista working turned her back to help a customer.
The moment the donation jar was stolen can be seen in a video that Happy Cat Cafe posted to their Facebook page.
You can watch that video below:
13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with Tony Quarto, the cafe's general manager, who said he was at home when he received the news.
"So our barista was on duty, and she was working, and we had a person come in who had been here before, you know, to use the bathroom," said Quarto. "We've let her use the bathroom before, but this time was definitely different, and when our barista had her back turned, helping our guests, unfortunately, they took it upon themselves to decide to take our donation jar for Fig and Friends Rescue."
Quarto said that some customers ran after the thief to try to get the jar back. They were able to recover the jar itself, but the cash was already gone.
Quarto said he didn't know off the top of his head how much money was lost. Though he did say there were some "bigger bills."
"We were doing a kitten week for Fig and Friends, specifically so we could showcase their kittens, help get them adopted, but also to use our platform to help them receive some donations," said Quarto.
While the loss of the money that was in the jar did impact the cafe's goal Quarto said a negative situation has turned into a more positive one as the community has now helped raise over $600 to replace the stolen money.
"After we posted the video on our Facebook, we had such a wonderful response from the community," he said. "So honestly, I would say this situation has actually helped us exceed our goals by making it so viral."
Quarto said he has not yet heard from the police if they found the thief, but that they are keeping an eye out for her to make sure this isn't an issue again.
If you would like to donate to Fig and Friends Rescue you can find a link within this Happy Cat Cafe Facebook post. Or, you can stop into the cafe with some cash for the donation jar, now located safely behind the counter.