Patio furniture stolen from Cape Coral restaurant found

The man accused of stealing patio furniture from the 10 Twenty Five restaurant in Cape Coral has been found and the furniture returned thanks to help from the community.

On Wednesday, WINK News told you about 10 Twenty Five’s search for their patio furniture thief after the man was captured on video.

The crook helped himself to two-patio chairs and the table to match. 10 Twenty Five’s Owner Chad Zollinger said he captured the thief on camera.

10 Twenty Five is a popular locally-owned restaurant located in Cape Coral and in Fort Myers.

Now, the restaurant’s owner is on the lookout for the man who stole patio furniture from the Cape Coral restaurant on Friday then came back Wednesday morning and took more furniture from outside.

The thief doesn’t know that it was all caught on camera. On Friday, that surveillance video shows the man getting out of a white PT Cruiser wearing a gray hat and Patriots shirt. He peeks around, grabs a patio chair, puts it in his car and drives off.

On Wednesday morning, the same man came back in his pajamas wearing the same gray hat. In the video, he grabs the other patio chair and table to go with it.

“Never had a problem and it’s in broad daylight. So that’s, that’s pretty, um… ballsy. For somebody to do that in broad daylight,” said 10 Twenty Five’s Owner Chad Zollinger.

WINK News asked Zollinger why he thinks someone would do this. “He must live in this area and kind of know the plaza because the times that he did come, obviously there is nobody here. He looks like he was looking around quite a bit, although he didn’t see our cameras and that’s going to help us out immensely,” said Zollinger.

Zollinger met with Cape Coral police Wednesday and filed a report. He gave them the surveillance video as well. Zollinger also posted on Facebook, offering free beer to anyone who may know this guy. “It would be one thing if it was something that somebody needed, maybe diapers or a sandwich or something like that. But this is just blatant stealing furniture, which anybody can relate to. If you try to order anything or go to a furniture store right now, everything is on backorder; everything is way more expensive,” Zollinger said.

Zollinger said theft is theft, and there’s no reason to do it. He said this is just another expense he has to deal with amid business that has already been hard enough with supply, demand and labor issues.

Zollinger said that he plans to press charges on the man who stole the furniture.