Laura Harris of Orange café Eat Botanic angry at sign theft

Between the night of Friday, July 29 and the next morning, the sign out the front of Eat Botanic was stolen.

One of the owners of the café located at the Botanic Gardens, Laura Harris, was disappointed and annoyed by the criminal act.

"You pay your money for something and someone helps themselves to it," she said.

"It's like, why? Why do you have to do that. Are you on a little drunk walk escapade? It's a heavy sign and takes damn-near two people to pick it up and lug it, it's not an easy thing to carry around.

"Why do you have to take something that doesn't belong to you?"

The business was bought in July of 2021, but due to COVID restrictions, it was unable to open for another four months.

While the cost to replace the sign won't break them, it's just another problem they will have to deal with.

"It's the better part of $1000 to get one of those signs redone. It's not a huge cost, but it's still a cost," Ms Harris said.

"It's been a real uphill battle recently because of inflation, the price of everything is going up tenfold, It makes it really difficult to keep your business going.

"They obviously thought they needed the sign more than we do, but what I can't understand is why, when it's got Eat Botanic written all over it."

On top of everything else, Ms Harris said they had only started using the sign two days prior to its disappearance.

"There's not a great deal you can do about it if people aren't willing to return it. I don't think it will be returned," she said.

"It's the wilful waste that they don't care. It's not a life-threatening thing to us, but it's a very big inconvenience."