It's not often a bad news story turns into a good news story, but a South Coast cafe experienced just that after a break in sparked an Australia-wide pay-it-forward success.
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Last week, Mogo cafe owners Andrew and Dani Kidd arrived at their Grumpy and Sweetheart's shopfront to discover it had been broken into during the night.
Ms Kidd said it was the cafe's first day opening for takeaway after being closed at the start of the regional lockdown.
READ MORE: Police report multiple break ins at Mogo
"We walked in to find our back window had been smashed overnight and the place was a huge mess," she said.
Ms Kidd described bottles of wine poured over the floor, chocolate syrup pumped all over the counter and the RFS donation box taken.
"It was just heartbreaking to come back to that," she said.
Word of the break in soon spread through town and on social media.
The team at Empty Esky, a movement set up after the Black Summer bushfires to support regional businesses affected by crisis, heard the story and got in touch to see how they could help.
They posted on Instagram about the break in and included Grumpy and Sweetheart's bank account details to allow people to send a donation and pay for someone's coffee.
In a matter of days people all over Australia purchased 660 "pay-it-forward" coffees, raising more than $3000.
"People from Victoria and even the Northern Territory were donating everything from $5 and $10 to one person who donated $1000," Ms Kidd said.
"We've been blown away by the kindness and the support and we've been giving out free coffees all week which has put smiles on lots of faces."
Ms Kidd said there were still plenty of coffees to pay forward, and the donations had also helped another Mogo business that recently experienced a break in.
"The jewellery store in front of us also had their window smashed and we offered to pay for the replacement with the donations," she said.
"The owners had already gone through their insurance so we paid their excess fee instead.
"It really turned a bad week into a good one."