New Hampshire coffee shop owner chases man who took tip jar

Surveillance video captured a New Hampshire coffee shop owner chasing a man who took a tip jar from the store and was able to get the tip jar back.

Lyndsey Stoyle owns Revelstoke Coffee in downtown Concord with her husband, Alex. She was walking through the store Wednesday with her young son, Gus, when she noticed a man walk up and grab the tip jar.

“I saw a guy come in. He went like, was definitely on a mission. Headed that way. And, went right for the tip jar,” Stoyle said.

Without thinking, she said her “mama bear” instinct kicked in.

“Just to stop him. And I was hoping to stop him in the space, so I just, I mean, my staff, they work hard for their tips. And this person coming off the street is not going to take them,” Stoyle said.

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She chased after that man, out of the store and down the block, until he, without saying a word to her, put the tip jar on the ground and walked away. Stoyle said the whole thing lasted about 10 seconds.

“This is an extension of our home. This is Revelstoke. We are just — this is my family. And so I did have a guest with me and my staff. I knew that they had his back. And so I just had theirs and I just decided like this was what I needed to do, and so I followed him out and retrieved the tip jar,” she said.

Stoyle said that she stepped in because she wanted to use the moment to teach her kids to step in and do the right thing. She said she had not seen that man in the shop before Wednesday.

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