Blind Toronto woman victim of theft

WATCH: The woman is upset she lost her backpack at a restaurant and disappointed that no one intervened. Catherine McDonald reports.

A Toronto woman who is blind and hard of hearing says she wants justice after a man stole her backpack from a busy Bathurst and Bloor Street restaurant.

The woman, who wants to be referred to as “Wai,” says she was having dinner at a sushi restaurant with a friend on the night of May 23, and realized her bag had been stolen when she reached for her wallet.

Her friend, who has full eyesight, didn’t notice anyone suspicious and wondered if she had left the bag somewhere else earlier in the night.

But Wai insisted she had it with her and asked the owner of the restaurant to look at his surveillance video to see if there was any sign of a thief.

The next day, she got a call from the owner saying a suspicious man could be seen on camera, sitting at the next table, kicking her bag out from under the table before fleeing. Wai says her backpack contained money, credit cards, groceries, drumsticks and dance shoes.

Police released the security video today in an effort to catch the suspect.

“I’m calling on my community. I think as a citizen of Toronto, we should really look out for each other to look for criminals like that,” Wai told Global News Wednesday. She is disappointed people at another table didn’t intervene. “I asked them, so you guys see a backpack? I think my bag is stolen and they laughed and only said ‘people in Toronto are jerks.'”

The suspect is described as black, 6-feet tall, heavyset, late-30s-to-mid-40s, with shaved or very short hair. He was wearing dark-coloured pants, a dark-coloured jacket with a hoodie, and a dark-coloured golf cap.

Anyone who may recognize the suspect is asked to call police at 416-808-1400 or Crimestoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).