Man who stole painting of naked lady sitting on a cigar from above urinal ordered to write out lines

On the wall of the men’s restroom in the Scandal Bar of the trendy Citizen Hotel in Sacramento hung a pricey portrait of a naked lady astride a huge cigar.



It was an attractive piece for a man who had too much to drink at a wedding. That guest took it off the wall and stuffed it in his garment bag. Barent Larkin, general manager of the hotel checked the hotel’s surveillance tape and did some online sleuthing on Google and LinkedIn.

He found his man and got him on the phone. “He sounded legitimately upset about what he did, it was a drunken mistake, one he wished he could take back,” Larkin said. Police went the man’s house to retrieve the painting. But he wasn't arrested.



Instead, Larkin did something only done in schools - he ordered the thief to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and write one line over and over again: “I will never again get drunk at a wedding and steal the naked cigar picture above the urinal in the Citizen Hotel.” The portrait will hang again, in a more secure fashion. And the lines from the anonymous thief will be right next to it.

With news video.