Restaurant Owner Chooses Forgiveness After Meeting Thief Who Broke into His Business
A business owner in South Carolina decided not to press charges against a thief who broke into his restaurant, choosing instead to forgive.
Small business owners understand the daily commitment it takes to keep a business up and running.
Your heart and soul is poured into nurturing your business, watching out for it daily as though it were another family member.
So when someone threatens, violates, or tries to hurt your business in any way, it’s understandable for the bear claws to come out full force.
Kevin Scott is known as “Mr. Seafood,” the owner of Mr. Seafood #1 in Columbia, South Carolina.
Just two weeks into the new year, somebody broke into the seafood restaurant overnight.
Scott closed his restaurant for the day while police came to investigate.
Scott used social media to let his customers know that, thankfully, nobody was hurt during the robbery and that the restaurant would be closed for the day.
It wasn’t long before a suspect was identified thanks to video surveillance footage.
When Scott learned the name of the man who had broken into his store, he requested a meeting with him.
Scott said he felt compelled to have a conversation with the thief to get to the bottom of why he’d broken into his restaurant.
“God inspired me,” Scott told WIS-TV.
“I talked to the guy and he said he did it to feed his family, and his story didn’t seem dishonest to me,” Scott said.
“He apologized and offered to work to pay off what he stole, but I don’t want that. I just don’t want him committing crimes.”
In the end, Scott chose not to press charges against the man.
He took to social media again, this time posting a photo of himself standing alongside the man who robbed his store.
“Forgiveness is better,” Scott captioned the photo. Standing with his arm around the apologetic thief was all the closure Scott needed.
Scott’s story of forgiveness has spread across social media, but Scott isn’t interested in internet fame.
He’s interested in making God famous, crediting God for giving him the wisdom and love to respond to the man with forgiveness.
“I don’t do things for accolades,” he said. “I do them to give glory to God.”
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