A Georgia restaurant owner has responded in a kind manner after a burglar broke into his premises. Instead of pressing charges against him, the compassionate owner has offered for him to swing by for a job.
Carl Wallace, the owner of Diablo’s Southwest Grill in Augusta, was woken up in the middle of the night on Easter Saturday—also Wallace’s 45th birthday—when a hooded man (as seen according to Wallace’s CCTV image) used a brick to smash the restaurant’s front window.
The thief, who broke in shortly after 4 a.m., was dismayed to find the cash register empty after he had shaken it.
Though the man didn’t steal anything, Wallace said he was disheartened.
“Really frustration and damage was the only thing done… we get woken up in the middle of the night, you have to run into the store, clean up the big mess and scramble to get the store back open by 11 o’clock,” he said.
However, recalling it was Easter weekend, he questioned himself: “What would Jesus do? Would Jesus have somebody locked up or would he offer forgiveness?”
Thus, instead of calling the police, Wallace took to Facebook.
But he didn’t stop at just a simple explanation of what had occurred. In a surprising display of kindness and forgiveness, Wallace offered the thief a job and said he wouldn’t involve the police.
“To the would be robber who is clearly struggling with life decisions or having money issues... please swing by for a job application,” wrote Wallace.
Before signing off from the post, Wallace suggested that there were better opportunities the thief could have chosen.
Needless to say, Wallace’s post went viral and inspired netizens to take to the comments section.
“I’ve always said… ‘you’re only one bad decision away from a totally different life,’” wrote one law enforcement retiree. “This morning you made [me] think that sometimes… ‘you’re only one GOOD decision away from a totally different life.'”
It’s exactly that one good decision that Wallace hopes to inspire in the thief who smashed his restaurant window.
Wallace who owns various businesses in Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama is “extremely hopeful” that the burglar will be in touch soon.
“That would be one of the greatest stories… you take somebody that was on the wrong path, someone gives them a hand,” he said.
Wallace, who decided to be forgiving, believes that the man might never have even been given an opportunity and must have been always put down in his life.
“There’s so much hate in this world,” he added, “we don’t understand each other’s problems and challenges in life.”
