Restaurant owner’s bid to find burglar after Easter Sunday break-in... to offer him a job

We all know about the festive spirit – but does that cover Easter, as well as Christmas?

One forgiving business owner appears to have demonstrated that it does – by offering a job to a burglar who broke into his restaurant on Easter Sunday.

Rather than pressing charges, Carl Wallace is trying to track down the man who broke into Diablo’s Southwest Grill in Augusta, Georgia shortly after 4am to give him a chance to turn his life around.

CCTV footage shows a man in a hooded tracksuit using a brick to smash the restaurant’s front window, before forcibly removing the cash register and shaking it to discover there was nothing in there.

“Within 45 seconds, he was back out the front door… no money was taken,” Wallace told the PA news agency.

“Really frustration and damage was the only thing done… we get woken up in the middle of the night, you have to run into the store, clean up the big mess and scramble to get the store back open by 11 o’clock.

“It made me realise, as a robber, this guy’s really not doing a good job – there’s got to be other career paths for this guy.”

Despite the rude awakening on what also happened to be Wallace’s 45th birthday, he shared pictures of the break-in on Facebook later that morning, along with his personal phone number and asked the robber to “please swing by for a job application”.

“No police, no questions. Let’s sit down and talk about how we could help you and fix the road you’re on,” he wrote.

The post has since been shared thousands of times and received international attention.

Other local business owners got in touch with Wallace and shared CCTV footage suggesting the same man had also broken into their properties.

Wallace said the break-ins were putting the man’s life at risk and he is “extremely hopeful” he will be in touch regarding the job.

“That would be one of the greatest stories… you take somebody that was on the wrong path, someone gives them a hand,” said Wallace.

“Maybe this guy’s never been given that opportunity. Maybe he’s always been put down in life.”

Wallace, who owns a number of businesses in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama, said he wants to “break the cycle” of the burglar’s actions.

“Your first reaction is anger and frustration, then you think about Easter weekend and think, what’s a better response?” he said.

“What would Jesus do? Would Jesus have somebody locked up or would he offer forgiveness?

“We all as humans have to have a level of forgiveness to each other, and try to find a better way because there’s so much hate in this world… we don’t understand each other’s problems and challenges in life.”

Couldn’t have put it better ourselves.