The owner of a café and sandwich shop in downtown Dartmouth says she is “thrilled” now that a piece of stolen artwork has been returned.
Renee Lavallee noticed Tuesday morning that a painting of a Halifax Harbour ferry that usually hangs on a wall in The Canteen was missing.
"I came into work (Tuesday) morning, was looking across the room at a white space, and I was like, ‘Guys, what happened to the painting?’" said Lavallée.
Lavallée says her employees assumed she had taken it home, but that wasn't the case.
While reviewing security footage, she spotted a person making their way around the shop, then removing the framed Eric Miller print and walking away with it during the busy lunch hour on Monday.
"We were so busy,” said Lavallée. “Nobody even noticed that someone had taken a painting."
The bad deed left many employees perplexed.
“We were very surprised,” said employee John Cunningham. “We love our community, we love our clients. To have someone jig us like that was a little disheartening."
Lavallee declined to refer the matter to police, saying she just wanted to see the print returned – no questions asked. She did release the security footage on social media, however, in the hopes someone would come forward.
And someone did come forward. Lavallee says someone dropped off the picture in a garbage bag near the shop.
“We did not see who returned it, nor do we care. We’re just happy that we’re able to put this whole incident behind us,” she said in a Facebook post.
“It has definitely been a bit of a rollercoaster over the past few days, but if we were to take anything away from what’s transpired, it's that our community spirit is stronger than ever - and that’s something that we can all be proud of.”
Lavallee says one woman even dropped off her own painting of a Halifax Harbour ferry to replace the one that had been stolen.
The security footage has since been removed from The Canteen’s social media sites.
