Cupcake thief breaks into Vancouver bakery, cleans up after himself

He had his cake, and stole it too. 

A peculiar burglary captured on camera shows a man stealing a box of cupcakes from a Vancouver bakery — but not before cleaning up the mess he made while breaking in. 

Security footage from Sweet Something, located in the Dunbar neighbourhood in Vancouver's southwest, shows a man kicking in the bakery's glass door on Friday. 

After loitering inside for a half hour, he mops up the broken glass and grabs a box of six cupcakes before leaving.

"It's the true Canadian break in," said the bakery's owner Emma Irvine. 

Irvine posted the footage online in a TikTok, which has accumulated over 1.3 million views at the time of writing.

Irvine says the man arrived in front of the establishment around 3 a.m. Friday morning, lingering outside and knocking on the door a few times before breaking in about half an hour later. 

Inside the bakery he walked around, used the bathroom, and spent time sitting in a chair. 

"He decides to take a rest. He must be really tired from breaking in to my business," joked Irvine in the TikTok video. 

The footage shows him then retrieving a mop and bucket and cleaning up the smashed glass on the floor, although Irvine says he did not do a very good job of it. 

The man also took selfies on the bakery's phone. 

"He was in no rush," said Irvine. 

Irvine said her heart sank when she initially saw the smashed door. But watching the tape led to some of the best laughs she's ever had. 

"Definitely not a typical day in owning a bakery." 

The Vancouver Police Department wrote in a statement to CBC that they are investigating the incident, but have not made an arrest. 

"It is alleged he took a single box of cupcakes valued at $30," the statement reads. 

Police say the man appeared to be in his 20s. 

'Forgive and forget'

This is the second time Irvine's business has been broken into. While she had paused the use of an alarm system at the time of this burglary to cut costs, she says she now plans to reinstate it. 

Like other food-based businesses, Irvine says her bakery struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"My heart goes out to any other business that has had to go through this," said Irvine. "Lucky for us ours had a little bit of a funnier spin on it and you can laugh it off and just move forward." 

Irvine says she is surprised and thankful nothing else was stolen, adding there was the cellphone, which the man used to take his selfies, in the bakery — in addition to an iPad. 

"You can't hate on him too much," said Irvine. "Forgive and forget, we'll move on." 

She says she hopes the man enjoyed the cupcakes.