Juneau man arrested for alleged theft of tip jar

Screen grab of video surveillance of a man who appears to take the tip jar from Sandbar and Grill.

Juneau Police are investigating a possible link between a coffee stand robbery earlier this week and two other thefts.

Police have arrested 30-year-old Juneau resident Joseph Robert Lofstrom in connection with stealing the tip jar from the Sandbar and Grill as well as $115 from Juneau Gold Buyer.

Lt. David Campbell said police were able to identify Lofstrom from a Sandbar video surveillance that showed a male stealing the tip jar. Sandbar also posted the video on Facebook and Craigslist, which led officers to Lofstrom for the Gold Buyer theft.

And through that – good job on the Sandbar — we got some identification of who the gentleman in the picture was and it just so turns out we were already looking for him. Because back on the 23rd, last Friday, we got a call from Juneau gold Buyer and they’d just hired a guy and the guy ended up stealing $115 and it was the same person.”

On Monday, an undisclosed amount of cash was stolen from the Heritage Coffee drive-through stand on Glacier Highway near Juneau International Airport. In that heist, the man apparently showed the clerk a weapon.

Campbell said JPD has received numerous tips this week that all three crimes may be related.

To be thorough, that is something we are looking at. But also we don’t want to be so focused thinking this is the solution that we end up missing things. We’ve gotten lots of tips from the community and the detectives are working on the overall aspects of the case.”

Lofstrom is being held on $1000 bail at Lemon Creek Correctional Center on two charges of third degree theft.

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