A LARGE Easter egg being raffled off to raise money for Sobell House Hospice was snatched from an Oxford restaurant.

Staff at Italian restaurant La Cucina in St Clement’s Street were devastated when the egg was stolen by a passerby on Saturday.

Weighing 1kg, the hollow Italian chocolate egg was the prize in the restaurant’s annual Easter raffle.

Restaurant manager Mel Fioravante said: “This is the third year we’ve done this to support Sobell House.

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“We sell tickets for £1 and then for Easter someone gets to keep it. It’s good because it is worth more than £1.

“It’s 1kg of Italian chocolate.

“The egg and its nice packaging was at the front of the restaurant on our display table.”

Oxford Mail:

The 1kg stolen Easter egg raffle prize.

He said the egg was taken at about 3.45pm on Saturday.

Mr Fioravante added: “We had two members of staff then and one of them was on the phone in the back and the other was busy taking orders from a table.

“It only took two seconds and someone just walked out with it out of the door.

“We didn’t see anything.”

The restaurant has CCTV but it cannot be viewed due to technical problems.

Mr Fioravante said: “I reported it to a Police Community Support Officer doing his rounds that evening and he said we need some evidence like CCTV before they can help properly.”

The restaurant’s owner, Yola Drange, added: “I was so disappointed and upset that someone would do something like this.

“This is a small gesture which we do every year to raise money for the hospice and for someone to walk into the restaurant and take the egg has just made us all so sad.

“We have had lots of customers over the years who have had to use the facilities of Sobell House so we support them.”

She said the restaurant was offering a reward to anyone who could help them track down the missing prize.

“If someone can help us find it there’s a reward of a complimentary dinner for two. But I don’t think we will get it back.”

Headington’s Sobell House Hospice Charity cares for about 3,000 terminally ill patients each year and it costs about £4m to run.

The hospice’s corporate fundraiser Kelly Houghton said: “It’s really sad that our supporters’ efforts are hijacked by thieves like this.

“The raffle raises about £100 a year but it’s not about the amount of money. It’s the gesture and engaging their customers to fundraise for us.

“It puts the restaurant in the position of trying to find another prize.

“We don’t want this to put them off supporting us in the future.”

The restaurant has bought a slightly smaller egg and a cake as a replacement raffle prize.