Multiple pancake breakfast vendors burglarized

Over $20,000 worth of items stolen from tents, according to police reports; questions linger over security

At least six vendors were burglarized before Santa Fe’s annual Fourth of July pancake breakfast, according to police reports released Monday that describe a plundering of the artists’ tents arranged on the Plaza in the late-night or earlymorning hours ahead of the holiday celebration.

A thief or thieves absconded with tens of thousands of dollars worth of handmade jewelry, wood carvings, pottery bowls and other items artists had placed and secured in their canopy tents the night before the annual Pancakes on the Plaza event, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Fe as a charity fundraiser and community celebration with support from a number of businesses, organizations and individuals.

Asked about the investigation into the reported thefts, Santa Fe Police spokesman Greg Gurulé said Monday, “There’s really not much to investigate. Nobody saw anybody; nobody saw anything.”

Officers, in their incident reports, noted that by the time they had arrived on the Plaza, the tents were open for the day’s festivities, some filled with people; these disturbances to the crime scenes, they wrote, made them difficult to assess for evidence.

Gurulé on Monday repeated his statement last week that the event organizer had refused when overnight police services were offered. The event coordinator, Terry Williams-Keffer, continued to dispute that account, saying organizers “would never refuse services by the police department.”

Gurulé said pedicab operators were hired to watch the area instead. Bob Chavez, who owns Santa Fe Pedicabs, said Monday his company was not involved with watching the area.

Rather, Chavez himself, along with a friend, spent 10 hours overnight on the Plaza looking out for items that had been set up in advance.

Chavez said he was first asked by organizers to watch over the overnight pancake breakfast set-up six or seven years ago and has done so each year ever since.

Chavez “makes the rounds,” he said, walking among the tents and keeping an eye on drunk revelers and whoever else might pass through from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

He said he did not notice any untoward behavior this year and could not recall any suspicious activity in prior years.

“There was nothing that caused me to want to call the police,” Chavez said of the July 3 stakeout.

Asked if vendors are aware that he and a friend are the extent of overnight security, Chavez said, “I’m not sure what the vendors are expecting. I just assume they’re aware of how it’s run and organized.”

He declined to say how much he was paid for the night.

The highest-dollar item pilfered was a box containing 415 bracelets made by an artist who estimated their collective worth to be $20,000. But that wasn’t the only report made to police. The additional goods taken from separate vendors were estimated to be worth almost $3,000, according to police incident reports.

One of the burglarized artists, who asked not to be identified for fear of being targeted by thieves at future art shows, said the event organizers were “blaming the victim” for having left things in the tents on the Plaza overnight. The application for the event’s art show, the artist pointed out, states that booths may not be set up the morning of the show.

The artist also pointed to a procedure form distributed by Rotary to participating vendors that says, “We do have security overnight.” The form also notes that the service club is not responsible for items left in tents.

Williams-Keffer, the pancake event coordinator, confirmed that the language in the form refers to Chavez and a partner, who “are there to make sure nobody messes with anything. I’d have to call that security.”

Williams-Keffer said most of the vendors use good judgment as to leaving items overnight.

Organizers will consider whether to hire uniformed security officers for next year’s event, Williams-Keffer added, though she said she was not convinced such a measure would prevent thefts.

“Whether security guards with official outfits on would help, I’m not sure,” she said. “But it’s something we will be talking about.”