SFPD Can't Stop Serial Tip Jar Thief

They see him coming. They know him, by his distinctive limp -- and the fact that he's stolen from their tip jars for years.

And yet Odis Jack Gillard, 64, keeps coming to cafes and coffee shops in the Divisadero Street corridor and in the Lower Haight, and keeps stealing money from their tip jars in plain view of customers, workers, and security cameras, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

Gillard last stole money from a jar and "assaulted an employee" at Cafe du Soleil on Saturday night, according to the newspaper. He "shoved her out of the way... leaving her injured," the Examiner reported, while making out with an unknown amount of cash.

Police did nab him, but Gillard has 79 felony charges and 78 misdemeanors leveled against him since 1990, according to the newspaper. He'll likely go to a psychiatric facility this time, instead of jail, but will be "released in a few days either way," the newspaper reported.

Gillard has also hit Greenburger’s on Haight Street, Cafe Divis at 359 Divisadero St., and Bean Bag Café on Divisadero.

Employees of cafes and other "minimum wage" workers who depend on tip jars for their sustenance -- in a manner different than Gillard's, that is -- may band together to seek a stay-away order, the newspaper reported.