An Augusta restaurant owner was upset after a man reportedly threw a brick through his restaurant’s door early Saturday.
But instead of filing charges against the would-be burglar, owner Carl Wallace offered the man a job.
“You know my initial response was, you know, anger, frustration,” he told TODAY Food. “I realized that we’re gonna have to kind of put up a Facebook post about our door looking really, really bad because here we are going to put up two sheets of plywood over the front door to just get through the day.”
“To the would be robber who is clearly struggling with life decisions or having money issues... please swing by for a job application. There are better opportunities out there than this path you've chosen.
“No police, no questions. Let's sit down and talk about how we could help you and fix the road you're on.
The suspect rummaged through the register at Diablo’s Southwest Grill as the alarm blared, Wallace said his security footage showed, but there wasn’t any cash inside.
Wallace decided to “extend an olive branch” on Easter weekend.
“You know, extend the layer of forgiveness and kindness and give the … would-be robber some redemption and a different path,” the restaurant owner told TODAY Food.
In his post on Facebook, Wallace offered the suspect a job.
“Our burritos are such a smash hit we’ve got people breaking in at 4am for their fix. So if ya see our door looking hurricane fabulous at Wheeler Rd this is why,” Wallace wrote. “To the would be robber who is clearly struggling with life decisions or having money issues... please swing by for a job application. There are better opportunities out there than this path you’ve chosen.
“No police, no questions. Let’s sit down and talk about how we could help you and fix the road you’re on. Sincerely Carl.”
His post has gone viral and has been shared more than 4,500 times, as of Tuesday morning. Wallace told TODAY Food he has heard from outlets in Europe and Australia to share his story. He said he’s also being texted by pastors from around the country.
“You know I kind of looked at it from the robber’s perspective of, you know, this really isn’t working … One of my things as an employer that I like to ask my employees (is) what are their goals in life and what do you want to do and what can we do as a company to help you achieve your goals?” Wallace told TODAY Food. “I would ask the robber the same thing: ‘What are your goals in life and is this putting you on the right path to achieve those goals?’
“And so it was just a little bit different approach to, you know, a bad situation.”
If the suspect comes forward, Wallace said he will not press charges.
“Putting this person through incarceration to then get out to make it harder to find a good-paying job,” he told TODAY Food. “It only makes it worse. Sometimes … even I feel that our system in life is broken sometimes for some people … We’ve been doing the same thing for 200 years and it’s not worked.”
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