A remorseful thief who broke into a bakery, smashing the glass front door and stealing cupcakes has called up the owner to apologise for his actions, and even offered to pay for the baked goods and damage.
At around 3am on May 26, a man who appears to be in his 20s showed up at Sweet Something in Vancouver, hanging around outside for about 30 minutes.
He then kicked the front door, shattering the glass before crouching and climbing in through the hole he created, according to police.
Once inside, surveillance footage showed the man sat down for a few minutes before getting up to use the bathroom, trying to clean up broken glass from the door and taking selfies on the bakery's phone.
After staying in the store for around half an hour, he grabbed six chocolate champagne cupcakes from the fridge, worth about $30 (£24) and left.
Just a few hours later, owner Emma Irvine's mum walked past the shop and called her daughter to let her know the news. Emma, 26, said her heart just dropped.
"This business has been like a labour of love, of blood, sweat and tears," she said speaking to the Washington Post. "Having these things happen to your business, it's always hard; it's a piece of you."
But on Monday, May 29, as Emma walked her dog around her Vancouver neighbourhood, her colleague called.
The thief had actually called the shop and asked to speak to Emma. She returned his call, during which he apologised for what he said was a dumb mistake and offered to pay for the cupcakes as well as the repairs for the front door.
Emma decided to ask police not to press charges. She said: "I had a lot of empathy and sympathy for this guy.
"You can tell that he's a young kid who made a mistake, and we all make mistakes."
Emma has been keeping followers updated with the incident in TikTok videos which have been viewed more than 2 million times.
She opened her small business in February 2018, putting a lot of work into the aesthetic of the shop, which managed to survive a downturn in business and previous burglary during the Covid pandemic.
When she got to the store on Friday, May 26, and took a look at the surveillance footage from the break-in, she couldn't help but laugh. Watching the footage, she believed the man must have felt some remorse as he tried to clean up the shards of broken glass.
"I think he just wanted some delicious cupcakes," Emma said.
She reported the crime to police and called her insurance company, and used a large piece of wood to cover up the hole in the door.
Emma even tried to make light of the situation - in the selfies he captured he was sporting a pair of orange sunglasses. So on Saturday, May 27, Emma baked a batch of cookies int he shape of organge sunglasses and put them on top of the chocolate champagne cupcakes, marketing them as "Crime of Passion" cupcakes.
When the thief called, he even offered to gift Emma his, now iconic, orange sunglasses. He also told her the cupcakes were delicious.
"It kind of closed the chapter," Emma explained. "You humanise the person on the other end of it. It's not very common that somebody calls in and says, 'I'm sorry I did that'."
Police say they have not yet made any arrests but are still investigating. The break-in has even helped business for Emma.
While the store typically serves the customers on its doorstep in Vancouver, she said she's had a spate of custoemrs ordering from the United States.
With the front door repaired, Emma and the thief are hoping to meet at the shop one day to laugh at the bizarre incident, over cupcakes, of course.
"One decision does not make a person," she said. "He might have done a wrong thing, but he did everything right after that."
