A new affliction for restaurant owners: burglars
In New Haven, Connecticut, a man broke into a Cuban restaurant and spent days drinking his way through the liquor selection. In San Jose, California, a restaurant owner watched from his phone as security cameras recorded a burglar’s helping himself to the best bottles in the bar. And in San Francisco, a restaurant in the city’s wholesale Flower Mart was robbed or vandalized four times in less than a month.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit small and independent restaurants hard, forcing owners to shutter dining rooms and lay off employees. But the shutdowns have done more than imperil the restaurants’ financial health — they have made the buildings themselves tempting targets for burglars emboldened by the quiet streets and deserted spaces.
Across the country, closed restaurants have been invaded by thieves who seem especially drawn to wellstocked liquor cabinets, and iPads and other equipment.
“It’s the perfect storm,” said Kam Razavi, an owner of the restaurant in San Jose, Loft Bar and Bistro. “They know everybody is probably at home with a loaded gun. They’re not going to go rob homes. They’re going to go to closed businesses.”
When his restaurant was broken into in early April, Razavi had already laid off most of his 75 or so employees and was uncertain whether he would ever reopen. Now, he is out $5,000 from stolen alcohol, a broken door and cleanup costs. “It’s like somebody pouring salt on your wound,” he said.
Although crime rates have fallen across the country, break-ins at small businesses have increased in some cities. The Texas county that contains Houston reported a 19% increase in commercial burglaries in late March. There has been a spate of restaurant and bar break-ins in Washington, D.C.
Since New York City declared a state of emergency March 12, the number of commercial burglaries has surged to 763, from 330 over the same period in 2019, police said. More than 140 of those break-ins have taken place at restaurants, nearly three times as many as during the same time last year. Other retailers, like gas stations and candy stores, have also seen a big rise in thefts.
“They’re targeting the small merchants; they’re targeting eateries,” said Michael LiPetri, chief of crime strategies for the New York City Police Department. “It’s outrageous.”
LiPetri said the department has reassigned detectives from other beats to go after burglars. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association held conference calls this week in which a crime-prevention nonprofit group taught restaurant owners how to protect their businesses during the pandemic.
“There’s a perception that there could be more things of value in a restaurant,” said Laurie Thomas, the association’s acting executive director. “Alcohol has value. Some people think there’s still cash in the place.”
The San Francisco Police Department has increased patrols in neighborhoods populated by many small businesses. But extra patrols were not enough to protect Bechelli’s Flower Market Cafe, once a popular lunch spot for police officers stationed nearby. One night at the end of March, a thief climbed in through a small window at the back of the bar and stole about 20 bottles of liquor.
“We kind of figured it would be bound to happen,” said Jan Bechelli, who runs the restaurant with her husband, Mark. “When this is going on, people are going to react this way.”
The next day, Mark Bechelli boarded up the window from the inside. Later that week, someone kicked through the same window, taking more alcohol.