Business owners in Glendale are fearing for the well-being of their establishments after a string of brazen break-ins in the area.
A total of 10 restaurants were broken into between 2 and 4 a.m. Saturday morning, police said. All the restaurants are located in the vicinity of Colorado Street and Glendale Avenue, though some of the damage stretches for blocks and even miles further.
Despite the tens of thousands of dollars in damage the businesses face, nothing was stolen.
Employees of surrounding businesses say that this is not the first time that the stores have been targeted.
“We are scared too, because we open at 6 in the morning,” said Seda Danielyan, who works at Sasoun Bakery, which is in the same plaza as two of the targeted restaurants. “My friend was coming to work, and she saw the shawarma and pizza shop doors were broken, so she called the police.”
Rockbird, a chicken sandwich shop in the same plaza as Sasoun Bakery, said on social media that this was the second time they and neighboring store Chinatown Express had been broken into in the last four months.
“For something like this to happen, its unfortunate, it’s a setback,” said Chris Skaf, Rockbird owner. “Our workers get rattled. It’s a second home to them and a second home to us, so it really sucks to see that happen.”
Detectives are combing through surveillance footage to try and identify a suspect or suspects, but no arrests have been made yet.
The following victimized restaurants are next to each other, but located in different shopping centers:
- Patar Shawarma, 625 E. Colorado St.
- Pizza Man, 627 E. Colorado St. (next door to Patar Shawarma)
- Rockbird, 1147 E. Colorado St.
- China Food Express, 1139 E. Colorado St. (next door to Rockbird)
- El Munchies, 1353 E. Colorado St.
- Thai Touch Restaurant, 1355 E. Colorado St. (next door to El Munchies)
These burglarized businesses are within a 10 minute drive of the others:
- Cafe Bravo, 1135 W. Glenoaks Blvd.
- Stone Oven Pizza, 711 S. Brand Blvd.
- Herand’s Kitchen, 946 N. Brand Blvd.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect that these incidents were break-ins, but not burglaries.
