Thieves smashed the glass on the front door of Buffalo State Pizza early Monday morning. But by the afternoon, everything was back to normal in the Crossroads tent. The glass was clean and fully repaired.
“Because we've done it so many times, the glass company now has our measurements in the file,” says owner Philippe Lechevin. “Three times this year already. So they were able to get started pretty quickly.”
Lechevin counted himself among the lucky ones on Monday: the thieves were deterred by a motion alarm and did not make off with any money or possessions.
For some other local businesses it was different.
Ruby Jean's Juicery (3000 Troost Ave.), Anchor Island Coffee (4101 Troost Ave.), Teocali Mexican Restaurant (2512 Holmes) and Nothing Bundt Cakes (332 W. 63rd St.) all reported break-ins overnight.
Jacob Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, said Monday afternoon that no arrests have been made. A similar overnight attack hit local coffee shops and eateries in June.
In Teocali, thieves smashed the glass of the front door, destroyed the door to owner Enrique Gutierrez's office and made off with a safe full of cash.
“They got me really good,” Gutierrez said.
Armando Vasquez, co-owner of Anchor Island Coffee, estimated the damage to his store at about $6,000.
“They broke our window, damaged both the front and back doors and stole our stovetops,” Vasquez said.
It is the third time Anchor Island Coffee has been robbed since it opened in 2020, he said.
“We leave our drawers open so people can see from the outside that we don't have any money in here,” Vasquez said. “But it doesn't seem to be working. The crime here seems to be getting worse instead of better since we opened.”
An employee at Nothing Bundt Cakes said thieves broke the glass front door sometime around 1 a.m. Monday morning. They entered the business but didn't take anything.
By Monday afternoon, Gutierrez had cleaned up the broken glass outside Teocali. He had a circular saw in hand and was preparing to cut through a sheet of plywood that was lying in the back of a truck — a temporary fix for the door.
“This is the first time we've been broken into in 18 years,” Gutierrez said, knocking on the plywood. “I guess I'll just knock on wood.”
