Video: Tropical Chinese restaurant in Miami robbed

Longstanding Miami-area restaurant Tropical Chinese has some disturbing news.

On Sunday afternoon, the Westchester eatery posted surveillance footage of someone ripping off a donations jar outside. Wrapped up top in a white covering of some sort, the thief dips his hand in the jar, then scoots away into the parking lot, nearly getting hit by another car.

“So ... this happened to us today. This is what America has come to,” reads the post, which added that a passerby was able to catch up to the getaway car, a white Nissan, and got the tag, CRE8411. “So brazen the [thieves]. They need to be caught. They stole ‘our,’ jar who knows what else they do.”

Earlier this month, the family-owned restaurant, which opened in 1984, started a GoFundMe drive to deliver boxes of food to healthcare workers. They raised $23,930 of a $30,000 goal and served more than 2,000 meals to local hospitals.

Customers also put donations in a jar outside the establishment, which is open for takeout. About $1,000 was taken, restauarant owner Mei Yu told the Miami Herald on Monday. The money was to go to more food boxes to feed first responders. Earlier this month, a tip jar was stolen from David’s Cafe in South Beach.

“I am just very bothered that this is someone’s hard earned money intended for goodness and was stolen,” said Yu, who filed a police report. “I won’t be able to thank each one of them and our warriors won’t know the name of the person that gave them the box of meal.”

For Yu, showing her appreciation for frontline healthcare workers isn’t about the coronavirus pandemic — it’s personal.

Her mother, Tropical’s founder Lee Yu, died in October after a 2 1/2-year battle with leukemia.

“I was in the hospital with her every day and every night. I thank my heroes, my angels, for taking care of my mother when I couldn’t be there,” she said. “Without them, my mother wouldn’t have lasted that long. I just want to show the healthcare workers they are loved.”

If you have any information about what happened on Sunday, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. You may be eligible for a $1,000 reward.