Austin restaurant employee has purse stolen in the middle of the day

Purse stolen at Austin restaurant

A purse was stolen in the middle of the day at a popular northwest Austin restaurant and the whole thing was caught on camera.

AUSTIN, Texas - A purse was stolen in the middle of the day at a popular northwest Austin restaurant and the whole thing was caught on camera.

The backstory:

The employee says she lost everything: her keys, $200 in cash, her paycheck, ID, and credit and debit cards.

Freda’s seafood grille has been a fixture in northwest Austin for more than 20 years and staff say they’ve never seen anything like this.

"This just shocked us. You never know people will do things like this," said Lee Wang, General Manager, Freda's Seafood Grille.

What started as a regular afternoon at Freda's Seafood grille quickly took a turn. Surveillance video showed a woman walking in around 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

Staff says she lingered inside before telling the hostess the bathroom was out of toilet paper.

General manager Lee Wang says when the hostess stepped away, the woman slipped behind the counter, grabbed her purse, and walked out.

"I think this lady, for me, is kind of like, it's not random, she probably does things, a lot of this. She knows what she does. She plans, she looks, and you know, she knows what she's doing," said Wang.

The hostess has kept her purse behind that counter every day for 20 years without any issues, until now. 

"She has a driver's license for sure. She has a wallet, she had some cash, and has a paycheck, has her checkbook. Also, of course, the car key, the home key, these kinds of things, some important things," said Wang.

The woman was last seen leaving in a black ford, but the license plate wasn’t visible.

In response, Wang says he immediately started installing more security cameras to deter this from happening again.

The restaurant’s owner, Freda, is covering her employee’s losses.

Wang says she is going to buy her a new purse, replace the money stolen, and her car keys.

"She worked here a long time. She has worked here for 20 years, maybe. She was here a long time, so we treated her like a family," said Wang.

The restaurant says a police report has been with APD.