An embarrassed man has owned up to vandalising a Nantwich town centre shop after CCTV images of the incident were circulated on social media.
The man, from Manchester, contacted John McMillan at Johnsons Printers today after Nantwich News published a story and images yesterday (August 1).
CCTV caught the man inexplicably kicking and smashing the glass front door of the premises, then walking off and tipping over a wheelie bin into the road.
Today, the offender has agreed to pay for all the damage and make a £100 donation to St Luke’s Hospice as requested by Mr McMillan, who will not pursue criminal damage charges.
Mr McMillan, who owns the business on Oat Market, said: “I took a phone call from a young man from Manchester this morning. He’s obviously seen the social media story and images!
“He apologised profusely for kicking in our door and has agreed to pay the repair and donate to St Luke’s Hospice.
“He was keen to make it clear this was not his normal type of behaviour and had had far too much to drink, but also was not making it an excuse.”
The offender was seen with a group of four young men and a woman, but none of the group were caught committing damage.
John added: “I’m fine with it, it’s the outcome I wanted all along. He was a well spoken young man and was very genuine.
“We’ve all done daft things when we’ve had too much to drink, and it can’t have been easy to speak up.”
John had posted the CCTV images on his own Facebook page as well as the Nantwich News story.
“It was shared hundreds of times, and it shows the power and reach of social media… and Nantwich News!”
This a fantastic approach by John. The police are under so much strain with job cuts and this gives the people involved an opportunity to put right their wrongs.
Eveeybody makes mistakes, most not this bad, but mistakes are mistakes.
#reasonablejohn
No one knows the guys personal circumstances who did this. I think In situations such as this we must think out side of the box, something John did.
Social media working at its best for once. Well done John Mr McMillan. St Luke’s also gain’s. Your a credit to Nantwich John.
Great result and an example, not matter how it was arrived at, of someone taking responsibility for their actions. Good lad.
so had someone owned up in a position of being uable to afford the repairs then criminal action would have been taken i presume? a perfect example of how money talks, some things never change. the police still have the power to prosecute but i doubt they will as too much paperwork
Really Keith, you need to surf some rainbows and find some happy juice. You must have tried really hard to find something negative in this story. I know John and I very much doubt had the perpetrator owned up and been genuinely unable to pay that he would have taken criminal action. The whole point of the post was to get the person to be accountable for their actions without involving the police. What is to be gained from prosecuting this person if they have owned up, shown genuine remorse and there is nothing to indicate they have done this before or will do it again.