A community has been left outraged in Melbourne’s northwest after a random attack left a cafe waitress with a broken tooth and fear of living in Melbourne.
Footage released by Essendon cafe La Vallee shows one of its female workers being assaulted as she carries plates to an outside table on Anzac Day.
As the waitress — a visitor from France who has only been in Australia for a few months — makes her way out of the cafe a woman walking past slams the plates out of her hands.
The woman, wearing a black top and blue jeans, doesn’t break stride and continues to walk down Keilor Rd while the waitress is seen reaching for her injured mouth.
Friends of the victim, Anais, have launched a GoFundMe, saying the victim has been “left traumatised and wants to leave the country”.
“Anais has been struggling to find work on her working holiday and only found this job recently, which is only a few shifts a week,” the post said.
“The random female attacker just kept walking and told her to get lost and it was her fault for walking into her.
“She is now left with a big dentist bill and some scars that she can’t even afford.”
La Vallee posted the footage to social media in a bid to find the woman responsible.
“We are beyond shocked at the abhorrent behaviour of this grown woman,” La Vallee wrote on social media.
“If you know her please send us a private message.
“This incident led to one of our beautiful staff members chipping their tooth from the plate she pushed into her face.
“We love being part of the community in Essendon and we hope our followers can share, tag and suggest this to local friends so we can get some justice and hold this person accountable.”
A police spokesman told the Herald Sun they were investigating the attack and searching for the attacker.
“The female staff member was bringing food to a table outside the premises on Keilor Road about 1pm,” the spokesman said.
“A woman assaulted the staff member, knocking the plate from her hand before walking off.
“The staff member sustained damage to her teeth from the incident.”
Police said the woman they are looking for was wearing a black long sleeve top, light blue jeans, sunglasses and a distinctive silver necklace with a charm. She was also carrying plastic bottles of iced-coffee and a black jacket.”
The local community has rallied to support Anais, with dentist Healthy Smiles in Niddrie offering to fix her teeth for free.
“This is disgusting behaviour,” Healthy Smiles said in a post.
“I am the owner of Healthy Smiles on Keilor Road, Niddrie, and I am more than happy to fix your staff member’s front tooth free of charge”.
Melbourne billionaire Adrian Portelli also took to the comments, offering a $5000 reward to find the attacker.
“This behaviour needs to be stamped out — it doesn’t belong here,” he said.
“This is at a local restaurant and they’re such good people.”
Herald Sun has contacted La Vallee and the victim for comment.