The owner of a popular Brazilian restaurant in an upmarket town near Manchester said "all he could do was laugh" after a woman appeared to steal a ￡150 sink from its bathroom.
Robert Melman, 72, said staff at Jardim Rodizo in Altrincham noticed that a sink and some pipes had mysteriously disappeared during a toilet inspection on Thursday, February 20.
Baffled, they checked CCTV and spotted a woman walking into the restaurant and making a beeline for the loos.
Mr Melman said she could then be seen emerging from the cubicles with a black handbag that looked suspiciously fuller than before.
He and his staff are convinced that the woman, who then headed for the restaurant’s exit with her bag "full of the sink," had managed to cram the imitation stone basin into her carry-all.
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The restaurateur, who also founded the all-you-can-eat steakhouse Fazenda in Manchester in 2014, said he couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre crime.
"I've seen a lot of things, but never something like this," he told the Manchester Evening News.
He added that the men's and women's toilets in Jardim Rodizo are separate, and each cubicle has a "nice" sink for hand washing.
While it could have been pricier, the disappearance of the ￡150 basin sparked questions about whether front-of-house staff had let the apparent thief in so that they could use the bathroom.
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Ultimately, though, the incident's eccentricity will ensure its place in the history books for Mr Melman, who said he had experienced thefts before but never anything quite like this in his decade-long career.
"I’ve had people steal lots of things over the years," the 72-year-old said. "Bottles of wine and things like that, but never something like this. This is quite unusual.
“I couldn’t believe it. All we could do was laugh. It cost me around ￡150, it’s not terrible, what can you do?”