A THICK thief who smashed his way into a city centre cafe made off with an empty box and a jar of change.

The bungling burglar raided Jericho Coffee Traders' cafe on Oxford High Street at around dawn on Saturday.

Using a rock to smash the glass pane in the front door, the thief only took the cash box and the staff tip jar.

Oxford Mail:

An employee discovered the break-in when they arrived at work around 8am and called police immediately.

However company founder James Armitage has now revealed the clumsy criminal clearly hadn't had his morning coffee when he made the raid, as he only made off with about £40 from the tip jar.

He said: "It wasn’t the smartest theft of all time – I do not expect this thief’s Christmas presents to be any better this year.

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"It wasn’t even worth the time, because it was a good safety glass, so it required a lot of work to break through it. It must have been very loud and there are people living just above."

New Zealand-born Mr Armitage, who founded his coffee business in 2013, said: "We never keep any cash on the premises. But to find out about that they need to manage to break into the cash box first."

However the company’s loss will be several times greater than the thief’s profit.

Oxford Mail:

Mr Armitage explained: “We needed to order a new window and buy a new cash box. I don’t have the invoice for a window yet, but I guess it will cost us couple hundreds of pounds.”

He added that he also expected the theft to be recorded by one of the numerous CCTV cameras on the High Street.

READ ALSO: Jericho Coffee Traders operates by a 'What Would Greta Do?' principle

Mr Armitage believes the crime must have been committed after 6am, because that is when the cafe's pastries are delivered each morning, and the courier did not raise an alarm.

With camera recordings, identifying the person responsible for the burglary might be even easier, because the window was broken with a cobblestone discovered by the cafe’s employees, which the thief must have brought with them.

Oxford Mail:

Cafe manager Abigail Parker said that staff were now keeping the rock in a Tupperware box.

She added: “We have never had anything like that here.

“It’s a shame, because we’re an independent place and I don’t understand how someone could decide to target us.”