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Recent burglaries at local businesses have owners asking questions

According to San Diego Sheriff-Fallbrook Substation Detective Steve Ashkar, his cases regarding the burglaries of two Fallbrook area businesses have been suspended with no leads.

In the early morning hours of July 17, Fallbrook Coffee Company and Brooktown Kitchen and Coffee confirmed they had been burglarized.

“The (modus operandi) in all of the cases is similar,” Ashkar said in an email to the Village News. “Two male suspects in hooded sweatshirts, taking precautions by wearing gloves and covering their faces. The burglaries are simple glass breaks; they rummage around inside for a couple of minutes and target cash registers.”

Brooktown Kitchen and Coffee owner Seana Martin described similar activity in her case and added, “The weird thing was, they didn't touch the televisions, they just went for the money. They knew what they were going for.”

Ashkar mentioned that the burglaries could possibly be related to several more that took place in Temecula in the following days.

Martin said the Sheriff’s department told her some of the items stolen that night from the restaurant were found near the corner of Mission and Live Oak Park roads.

“This could mean that the burglars were on their way back out of town,” Ashkar said.

Martin said business owners in town are talking and comparing stories.

“You know I took screenshots of the video footage and showed them to Steve Yama at Yama Restaurant,” Martin said. “When he saw the photos, he said it was the same guys that he saw in his video surveillance.”

Shortly after the burglary at Martin’s restaurant, Liza Anson’s Jo-Liza Home and Fashion Boutique was hit. The robbers first broke into the breaker box, disabled the building’s alarm and then got in.

“They opened all the drawers, they took the computer, all of the things that they can sell fast,” Anson said. “When I talked to the detective, basically they suggest that I check it out myself on Craigslist to see if they are selling the stuff there, go to the flea markets. I have too many other things to do besides checking online to see if someone is selling my stolen property.”

Anson questioned what to do next.

“We’re right along a very busy road, and there’s people around, it’s happening too close and too often. I’m just a new business too, what’s it going to take?” she said. “We can up our security system, but there are too many criminals living around us and nobody is doing anything about it.”

Martin has the same questions.

“I don’t really know what to do,” she said. “When you hear about people getting hit twice, I guess I should probably expect to get hit again — and I don’t really know what to do with that.”

There has been conversation, according to Martin, about the use of metal bars and gates on some of the storefronts.

“At what time to do we really consider beefing up to that level?” Martin said. “We are supposed to be this quaint little town and I don’t think people are going to want to see that.”

Certainly Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Lila MacDonald agrees with the latter portion of that statement.

“Nobody wants a gated up town, nobody wants a town that has to be patrolled 24/7,” she said. “I understand their frustration, I’ve owned a business and we were broken into.”

“(The chamber) is always ready to put this topic up as a discussion, because certainly we’re concerned about every business in town, whether you’re a chamber member or not.”

MacDonald mentioned she is interested in speaking with the Sheriff about the recent burglaries and the expectations the community has for the department.

Discussions about patrols and staffing are great, according to MacDonald, but what if that isn’t enough?

“At what point do we need to really look hard at cutting it off, once it gets to that point?” she said. “Do we put together a citizen’s action group?”

It is an idea that Martin mentioned.

“The more people that are involved with this, the more we talk, the more likely we are going to catch them,” Martin said. “This is a town effort.”

 

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