A thief helped himself to two bottles of St Giles gin from a Norwich shop - but the owners had the last laugh.
That is because the bottles, stolen from St Giles Pantry, Upper St Giles Street on Sunday afternoon, contained just stale water.
The bottles were display models in the window of the coffee shop - and contained no gin.
But the owner, Alan Sabol, who opened the shop, selling coffee and other local produce eight months ago, said he was still taking the incident seriously and had reported it to the police.
"I've had my window smashed once before so there was nothing in the bottles on display, just water, but it was still very upsetting, both for the supervisor and customers who were in the shop at the time.
"The man was brazen, he just walked into the shop and reached into the window, grabbed the bottles and ran off.
"It's the principle as we are an independent business and we've all been really struggling because of Covid so it's just not a nice thing to do."
The store managed to capture on camera two images of the man, who was dressed in a blue puffa jacket, camouflage-style trousers, a cap and mask.
The incident happened at 3.04pm on Sunday, June 27.
Norfolk Police said they were looking into the matter.
A spokeswoman said: "We received a call reporting that two display bottles of gin had been stolen from a shop in Upper St Giles, Norwich, at 3.04pm on Sunday, June 27.
"This remains under investigation."
If anyone has any information they should contact Norfolk Police.
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