Wednesday July 1, 2009

On June 17, employees of the Papa John's on Ivy Road were stunned and angered to find out someone stole their tip jar.

"That's our money," said store manager Dan Street. "That's like stealing from our pockets."

The $57.55 inside the tip jar would typically be divided among the employees, but the money still has not been recovered. Police, however, had little trouble in finding and arresting a suspect, 47-year-old Samuel Murray of Charlottesville.

The reason they were able to find Murray so easily is that his crime was captured on the store's surveillance camera. Not only did police have Murray's face, they also had all his personal information. Before he stole the tip jar, employees say Murray came into the store and filled out a job application.

"We actually like them when they're this easy because it's not much investigation to do," explained Charlottesville Police Lt. Gary Pleasants. "When the person tells us who they are and then commits a crime it does make it a little easier."

Lt. Pleasants says the investigator assigned to the case took one look at the surveillance footage, one look at the job application, and had little trouble making the arrest.

As for the store's employees, they're still trying to figure out why someone would do this.

"I would never really expect someone to grab our tip jar right after they turn in their application with all their info on it," Street said.

While they're able to laugh about it, employees say they still haven't gotten their tip money back and, since the robbery, they haven't even put the tip jar back on the counter; they say they don't want this to happen to them again.