A man is in hot water after allegedly attempting to steal live crabs from a Chinese restaurant in Victoria Wednesday morning.

The owners of Ocean Garden say they woke up to several calls from VicPD, who were reaching out to let them know their business had been vandalized.

“We were lucky enough to have a witness for this unfortunate event,” the restaurant owners said on social media Wednesday.

“This morning around 8 a.m., a man found it upon himself to demolish our front door and proceeded to steal our live crabs… yes.. our live crabs. Not our cash register, not our liquor or equipment. Our crabs.”

The witness confronted the man and got him to put the crabs back, the restaurant says.

Police say the man was found and arrested less than two hours after the incident.

He was then released under the condition not to return to the business and to attend a future court date.

However, at around 2 p.m., police say they received a report of a smoke grenade being discharged inside the same restaurant.

The business was evacuated before officers got there, with an estimated 30 customers being affected.

“Through the investigation, officers believed the same suspect was responsible for both offences,” VicPD said.

He was arrested Thursday morning just after 9 a.m.

The man was charged and then released with conditions and a future court date once again.

The owners of the restaurant said Thursday morning that they planned to open quickly without any loss of business.