Article: Why do diners feel the need to steal items from a restaurant?

An article came up the SF Chronicle online...it should be an intriguing read for many of the folks around here...Not that we have individually stolen anything from a Tiki establishment...or any restaurant for that matter...but we collect things that "might" have been stolen...

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/tjjacobberger/2010/10/22/why-do-diners-feel-the-need-to-steal-things-from-a-restaurant/?tsp=1

I stole a drink menu from Smuggler's Cove.

But on the other hand I paid $120 for one shot of rum there. And that doesn't include the 20% tip.

If you're going to steal, alway leave a good tip.

Someone stole my Mug from Don the Beachcomber!

Long Live the :tiki: "TCLF"! :tiki:
Putting the "Truth" back in the T for Tiki!

The new tiki bar Tiki No decided to use Dynasty mugs.

I told them that You All are gonna steal them.

They really need to get their own tiki mugs like Frankies Tiki Room.

Frankies Tiki Room mugs sell.

I just bought the new Frankie's Moai mug

I've always guided my actions based upon this truth:

"If I don't steal it, then someone else will."

Buzzy Out!

I'm afraid to come in here...has anyone dusted for prints?

I would NEVER and I do mean NEVER steal from a Tiki bar...serious serious serious. I do ask if menus or bar ware is for sale and love it when it is. I have, however, helped myself to menus from non-Tiki establishments. Mums the word on that though...you didn't hear it form me.

I read an article in the New York Times some years ago about what people will steal from restaurants...

From $3 water glasses to $1,200 silver ice buckets, from vintage photographs hanging on the walls to scented candles burning in the bathrooms -- if it isn't nailed down, diners have walked off with it. Over the course of a year, restaurants around the country lose as much as 3 percent of their earnings to theft by customers who seem to be getting more brazen by the minute. Demitasse spoons, Peugeot pepper mills, imported wineglasses, Frette linens, framed artwork, serving platters, Champagne buckets. The list of stolen goods boggles the imagination.

From the February 27, 2002 New York Times article They Steal Napkins, Don't They? (And That's Just a Start)

When I was looking up that article I came across another Times article from July 12, 1992 addressing the same subject...

Souvenir Scavengers Give New Meaning to Restaurant 'Takeout'

Krikee...how can I get one of those $1200 Ice Buckets? Does it come with ice? :o

I personally witnessed an "impulse steal" by a friend's girlfriend. We were sitting at a table in a very nice restaurant and she said "These salt & pepper shakers are very nice - I think I'll take them" and into her purse they went.

My GF and I went to Hula's in Monterey and decided we had to buy some tiki mugs (I think it was the brown one used for Mai Tai's) They were shocked because, apparently, most people just steal them. My GF stole some mermaids from the scorpion bowl though in a fit of booze, then wondered why we had plastic caltrops in our pockets in the morning.

Ah yes, the often underestimated safety aspect of "field collecting". Always offer to buy an item as a first option!

"Hey man! Somebody ripped off the things I ripped off, man!"

Cheech and Chong ~ Next Movie