Crumb Cake Thieves Repay Lavallette Bakery After Stealing Treat While Filming Themselves

LAVALLETTE, NJ — A group of men who filmed themselves taking a freshly baked sheet of crumb cake from a Lavallette bakery have repaid the bakery for the stolen treat.

But the owners of Colonial Bakery, who posted surveillance video of the theft, say they are still waiting for a public apology from the men.

The bakery posted the video to its Facebook page on Monday, seeking the public's help in identifying the men who opened a back door and took the sheet of crumb cake on Sunday night.

In the video, the faces of two men are clearly visible as they first peer in, then open the screen door and take the cake. A third man in the background can be seen filming the theft, and the bakery owners say a fourth man was present.

Colonial Bakery also polled the public, asking what consequences were in order for the theft, suggesting they would make them eat a whole pan of crumb cake at one sitting. Most people who responded urged the owners to file a police report.

Within hours of sharing the video, the men had been identified. Colonial Bakery's owners publicly offered a deal: come in and pay for the cake and make a public apology video, and they wouldn't press charges.

On Wednesday morning, the owners posted an update, saying three of them men had come and paid for the cake and apologized privately.

"We wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that shared, commented, and helped us find the thieves!" the owners wrote. "To see our small business gather so much support from the local community (and beyond!) is humbling."

"We know the barrier island is a special place where we watch out for each other and this was yet another example of exactly that. While we would never condone theft of any kind and did take the situation seriously, we did try to take a lighthearted approach with our funny poll of consequences. Sometimes you just need to make lemonade out of lemons right?!" they wrote.

"We made our best attempt to solve this issue the way we felt was right for us. THANK YOU again to everyone for the support and help and we feel lucky that we were able to resolve this issue. The additional publicity is our silver lining in an otherwise 'sticky situation' — sorry just had to get in one more pun," they wrote.

"We are waiting on their apology video," the bakery said.