WE all know how tough the last two years has been on small businesses — especially those in the service industry who have been forced to close for long periods of time amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But one restaurant in Edinburgh, the U.K. is now facing extra hardships, as customers keep coming in and stealing their decorative ornaments and setting them back at least 25 pounds (US$34) a week.

Staff at the Woodland Creatures restaurant in Leith have taken to Facebook to issue urgent pleas for the robbers to stop running off with the adorable fox and owl clay ornaments, as they claimed that roughly five of the 5-pound decorative pieces go missing every single week.

The restaurant — which has won Best Gastro Pub in Southeast Scotland — slammed thieves who are “deliberately damaging” their business, and said they “should be ashamed” of themselves for picking on a small business that is already struggling financially following the pandemic.

In one Facebook post, they wrote: “Right. We’ve had a few laughs about these little guys going missing, but this time we are serious.

“You are stealing from a small business, who has struggled through COVID with closures, curfews, capacity limits and capitulation. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

“We are having to replace up to five of these a week, which is beginning to add up as a significant cost to our little business.

“We know they are cute. That’s why we bought them. You can buy them too: instead of deliberately damaging a locally owned and run business; give Jeff Bezos some money instead.”

The restaurant also included two links to Amazon pages that stock both the fox and owl ornaments, with the fox versions priced at 20 pounds for four, and the owl ones being the same price for a pack of 12.

The plea for thieving customers to stop pinching the ornaments comes after staff also issued warnings to customers back in September and November last year — with one post even claiming they had “looked at CCTV and know who took them.”

Commenters on the post were equally as determined to see the ornaments returned to the restaurant, as one said it was “sad” to think they might need to firmly nail the decorations to each table.

(SD-Agencies)