Quick-thinking California restaurant workers foiled a would-be thief’s attempt to steal their robotic co-worker who’s worth almost $20,000, ABC News 7 reported.

Employees at a California pho restaurant stopped a would-be thief from kidnapping their $18,000 robot coworker last Saturday as the man awkwardly struggled to load the mechanical server into his car.

Owner of Pho 21 Tony Ngo says the device requires specialized programming to function, making it unusable outside of the restaurant. No injuries were reported, and the robot server was not injured ...

“Every restaurant chain is looking toward as much ... Marcus Merritt was surprised to see a robot server at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta recently. The robot didn’t seem to be replacing staff ...

Owner of Pho 21, Tony Ngo says the device requires specialized programming to function, making it unusable outside of the restaurant. No injuries were reported, and the robot server was not ...

The man tried and failed to load the robot server into his car. Picture: KGO-TV Other employees inside the restaurant bolted outside and wrenched the robot away from the would-be thief.