South Austin restaurant broken into for second time in three months
AUSTIN, Texas - After burglars broke into The Tailor Shop Bar and Foodery in south Austin three months ago, and got away with cash, Diego Batista couldn't believe his alarms were going off again.
"This would be the second time we get that call, and it's just an awful feeling like it rings a certain way on your phone, and you just know someone is in your place," said Batista, who is a managing partner of BelaCor Capital Hospitality, which oversees The Tailor Shop.
Batista rushed to the eatery around 2 a.m. Tuesday night.
"We showed up at about 2:30 a.m. with just glass everywhere," said Batista. "Our office door ripped apart, our cash drawers ripped apart, and that's pretty much what we walked into at 2:30 in the morning."
He said, this time, these would-be burglars didn't get away with money. But damage to the building alone could cost about $10,000.
"It's a major setback, and we're still recovering from the first time they broke in and then mind blown that they did it again. It's just really difficult bouncing back from these for sure."
On top of replacing the broken items, he's paying to add even more surveillance cameras around his building, plus floodlights.
"It's going to be a second round of beefing things up, and the best thing we can do right now is get as much evidence for the police as possible," said Batista.
His store isn't alone in these burglaries and break-ins.
"We watched Sonic get broken into, and it just seems like they go down the street checking back doors or loose doors, or glass doors," said Batista.
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Batista said he hears about similar incidents on South Lamar Blvd. every 60 to 90 days, and he's ready for whoever it is to get caught.
"We call them just like the ‘Lamar Bandits’ that are basically just running up and down Lamar."
Batista said he's working on filing a report with Austin police.
His advice to other businesses in the area is to increase security, add drop bars to their doors, and have more cameras so that if it happens to them, they'll have more evidence for police.