A store owner isn't pressing charges against a man who stole something from her Roanoke business.
It wasn't money or merchandise. Instead the thief took 'the most interesting man in the world'.
It's a 6-foot cardboard cutout featuring the star of the popular Dos Equis beer commercials.
He's known as the most interesting man in the world and this week he was the most wanted man in Roanoke.
"We do have a lot of crazy things happen but this is definitely one of the craziest things," says store owner Susan Lipes.
The theft was caught on video.
A man and a woman walked into the 7-Eleven on Crystal Spring Avenue in Roanoke last Friday night.
When they approached the register the woman told the cashier she needed some limes. As the cashier walked away, the man grabbed the cardboard cutout and quickly walked out of the store.
"I think he probably thought it was joke or something," says Lipes.
But Susan Lipes isn't laughing. The cutout of the Dos Equis character is going to be raffled off later this month to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The raffle has already raised about $300.
"I was pretty mad, very mad cause I thought of everything why would somebody steal something that's for a charity," says Lipes.
Lipes was able to get a replacement cutout.
On Friday one week after the theft, 'the world's most interesting man' was found by Roanoke Police. They caught the man who admitted to the theft.
Lipes has decided not to press charges.
"He is going to donate money to the charity and write an apology letter to the MDA," says Lipes.
Lipes says the man will also pay $25 for the cutout and he's banned from her two Roanoke stores.
As the Dos Equis character might say "I don't always let thieves go but when I do, it's for a good cause".
