5.31.23 – Global News- Vancouver
‘A really nice kid’: Vancouver cupcake burglar apologizes, offers to pay for repairs.
The Vancouver burglar with a sweet tooth who went viral last week after he was caught on camera breaking into a bakery to pilfer half a dozen cupcakes has fessed up to his crime.
What’s more, according to Emma Irvine, who owns Sweet Somethings on Vancouver’s Dunbar Street, he’s “a really nice kid.”
The unusual burglary was caught on a security camera early Friday. In the recording, the young man can be seen smashing the glass on the bakery’s front door.
But instead of going for cash or other high-value items, the video then shows him spending the better part of an hour hanging out, mopping up the floor, and snapping some selfies on the business’ work phone — before leaving with six cupcakes for the road.
“You know, I think it was his first rodeo,” Irvine told CKNW’s The Mike Smyth Show on Wednesday. “He was in no rush. I think the intention was to grab some really good cupcakes and be on his way. Who knows?”
After the bizarre story made headlines, Irvine said the sheepish thief phoned the bakery to apologize for his sticky fingers, and has offered to pay both for the damage to the door and for the purloined sweets.
“He gave me a call and, you know, it was a really sincere, heartfelt apology. You know, I have a soft spot in my heart for this guy. So we’ve definitely asked the police not to press charges,” she said.
“He has offered to give me the orange sunglasses that he has made famous in those selfies. And maybe one day him and I, he said, we’ll sit down at Sweet Somethings and have a chocolate champagne cupcake and just reminisce over this.”
As for the sweet swindler’s motive?
“He didn’t really say much about it. I didn’t ask too much about it,” Irvine said. “I think he was heading home. That’s all I know,” Irvine said.
In the meantime, Sweet Somethings is making the best of the situation, rolling out a line of cupcakes emblazoned with the orange sunglasses the burglar wore in his selfies.
The experience has been a social media boon as well — Irvine’s original TikTok post about the break-in has been viewed more than 2.1 million times, while a follow-up about the apology has attracted nearly 300,000 views so far.
