A San Jose restaurant is reeling after waking up to a costly and destructive break-in at one of their newest locations and it was all caught on surveillance video.
The video shows the moment the masked burglar smashed right through plate glass door and into San Jose's Funny Farm Restaurant on the corner of San Felipe and Yerba Buena at 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
“I awoke to a bunch of texts and missed phone calls,” said co-owner Monica Levi.
She and co-owner Ron Levi jumped in the car to find the damage and the police already on the scene 15 minutes later.
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Then they saw the surveillance video as the man searched their new restaurant location for anything of value.
“It was really sad, and stealing the staff tips, that was kind of hard because they were hidden,” said Monica.
About $200 in tips were taken from beneath the front counter and the empty cash register on the counter eventually smashed to pieces.
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The owners don’t think it was an inside job.
They can’t think of any disgruntled former employees of the new restaurant, which opened just three months ago, or any other businesses they own.
“It’s not acceptable,” said Ron. “We won’t put up with it.”
Monica and Ron have also learned they’re not the only ones targeted in their shopping center.
“Almost everyone in this plaza has suffered a break-in and a lot of them multiple times,” said Ron.
And he said the thief seemed experienced.
“They knew exactly what they were doing and just went for the super high-end stuff,” said Ron.
The thieves took expensive liquor, some bottles worth hundreds of dollars each, and an iPad, along with other small items.
They also smashed through the exterior door and randomly kicked in an unlocked door to a back office.
“Pretty much destroyed the whole thing,” said Ron. “It’s useless now.”
That's another couple grand in repair costs.
“The damage is more of an emotional kind of crush than the things they’re stealing, because you see the wreckage and you have to do something about fixing it,” said Ron. “The stuff that’s gone – it’s gone you lost it.”
The couple says neighboring business owners are now communicating and looking out for one another. And the burglar should know it won’t be that easy next time.
And they say customers responded by bringing them business.
“People have just been coming out in droves to support us, so it’s really heartwarming,” said Monica.
SJPD is investigating and the Levis say they’ve already received calls from people who think they know who the man is and the callers were forwarded to police.
