Police search for Starbucks tip jar thief

Petaluma police are looking for a suspect who allegedly stole tip money from Starbucks employees on two separate occasions and also attempted to steal a deposit bag that was near the register on Aug. 28.

Police said the suspect is wanted for stealing money from a tip jar on Aug. 16 at a Starbucks on 701 Sonoma Mountain Parkway in Petaluma and then doing it again during a second theft at the same location on Aug. 28.

Petaluma Police Sgt. Rick Cox said the suspect also tried to take a deposit bag during the second theft, but an employee told him that the bag wasn’t his. Cox said the suspect handed the deposit bag back to staff and fled from the store on foot. Cox said Starbucks staff confirmed he was the same person from the previous theft.

Video surveillance from the coffee shop, police said, identifies the suspect as a Hispanic man in his late teens or 20s. At the time of the crime, he was wearing a red T-shirt, beige pants and holding a gray sweatshirt. Police said the suspect might have a flower tattoo on his right wrist.

Anyone with information on the case should call Petaluma police officer Kim Mota at (707) 781-1243.