Furious restaurateur would like his giant fork returned

A furious restaurateur has appealed for the thief who stole a giant ornamental fork to return it as soon as possible. Staff at the Church Street Tavern in Colchester, Essex, noticed the 5ft decoration had been taken during a busy service on Saturday night, with the accompanying spoon left hanging alone.



Piers Baker said although the fork was worth very little money, it had huge sentimental value having been in his family since 1976. He said: “At some stage on Saturday night it has gone missing. It was wrapped around a nail so it is not something which can just be easily unhooked, it would have taken a bit of effort to get it down.

“People have asked me how nobody noticed it was missing until the end of the night, but it is a background feature and one of several different knick-knacks we have used to decorate the Church Street Tavern. On Saturday nights it gets very busy and everybody is working hard to make sure everyone is being served. The CCTV we have does not go that far back into the corner where the fork was on the wall.



“If somebody had wanted to get it out then they could have put it under a jacket and it would have reached down the side of their leg so it could have been sneaked past without the very busy staff noticing. Why should people think they are allowed to take things from restaurants? It is theft.” Mr Baker said he had decided not to report the incident to the police. He said: “The police won’t do anything about it. I have filed reports about other instances before and nothing has ever come of it, they have much more to worry about than something which is purely of sentimental value. I am hoping it will end up being dumped back on the premises when whoever took it realises how silly it is.”