Coffee shop owner pens letter to thieves in Germantown

GERMANTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Luke Smith tells us he surrendered to the reality that as he put it, "If someone really wants to get in, they're going to get in."

The revelation came after discovering, for the second time, thieves made off with all the valuables inside his Germantown coffee shop that's under construction.

"You can see how these rings, these were ceiling copper pipes," said Smith. "Whoever is doing this is extremely desperate."

Desperate enough to break in by scaling into a second-story window, and plying away wood boarding up the backdoor.

After trying to make sense of two brazen thefts, the owner of a coffee shop under construction penned a note to the would-be thief.

"My only option is to appeal to their better conscience, and let them know, there's a real person on the other side of what they're doing," said Smith.

He even made an unlikely offer - a job to help at the construction site, and attached $20 to the letter.

"It's just sort of a token. They have taken everything that's here, and if they're that desperate enough to come back again for whatever scraps of copper they can find, then I want them to know that the person they're doing this to wants to help them," said Smith.

Smith admits it wasn't his initial reaction, but is hoping if and when the person comes back, they'll read his note, and think twice about stealing from him.