A Findhorn restaurant owner has hit out at a pair of “gelato bandits” who helped themselves to ice cream despite the parlour being closed.
The pair ignored the parlour’s closed sign in the much-loved Captain’s Table restaurant in Findhorn.
Owner Simon Paterson said he was “shocked” when he saw the pair helped themselves to ice cream from the parlour, and that he had to throw away all the gelato due to cross-contamination.
His post on social media has garnered more than 100 shares, in which Simon says the couple are “banned from all Paterson run establishments for life”.
Yesterday, the pair were in the restaurant and asked members of staff if the parlour was open. However, it was closed due to staff shortages at the time.
Despite this, at around 7pm on Saturday, October 5, the pair decided to sneak into the parlour through the restaurant’s games room and ‘helped themselves’ to ice cream.
One of them went behind the counter, while the other laughed as they began scooping different flavours of ice cream into a cone.
18-year-old waitress confronted pair
A staff member, who had recently turned 18, confronted the couple.
She took the ice creams from the ‘gelato bandits’ despite the pair still making a joke out of the situation.
“A member of staff confronted them and took their ice creams off them,” Mr Paterson said.
“The pair were still laughing and making a joke out of it.”
Simon said that the hospitality industry was already going through enough, especially after the pandemic.
He added: “There’s the financial impact for the business but then there’s the emotional impact for the staff.
“For an 18 year-old girl to have to deal with that – and she did amazingly well – it’s just not right.”
The restaurateur believes the ice cream stock he has lost will cost him hundreds of pounds to replace.
Simon added: “We’ve had to throw everything out due to cross-contamination and hygiene.
“You live in a world where you trust people. For people to take that liberty and abuse it – it just makes us feel unsafe.
“Most of our staff in the ice cream parlour are young people and it’s such a shame something like this can happen.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 10.50am on Sunday, October 6, we were made aware of a theft from a premises in the boat yard area of Findhorn.
“Enquiries are at an early stage.”
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