Owners: Burglars targeted SLC businesses in similar fashion
Nov 16, 2023, 11:51 PM | Updated: Nov 17, 2023, 6:23 am
SALT LAKE CITY—Two eastside business owners were hoping Thursday someone would be able to identify those responsible for early morning break-ins at their shops.
At Liberty Heights Fresh, 1290 S. 1100 East, owner Steven Rosenberg said multiple surveillance cameras at his market captured the burglary there.
“This morning at 5:23 a.m. two white males in a black, late model Jeep Cherokee pulled up right where you’re standing,” Rosenberg told KSL TV as he stood in his parking lot. “The passenger got out from the passenger side in the shotgun seat pulled up a facemask, had a black beanie and a black jacket and glasses and a little scruff and he walked to the front door. He hit it with something, it shattered. He pushed the glass out of the way, he went in and he took a cash drawer.”
The cameras showed the unknown suspect exiting with the entire cash drawer before looking over his shoulder and closing the door before the SUV drove away onto 1300 South.
“They got nothing,” Rosenberg said. “They ruined our day.”
If only it was the only day ruined before sunrise.
A couple of miles away, owner Alek Juliano said Coffee Noir, 1035 E. 200 South, also experienced a burglary.
“Yeah, we had someone smash the front door and walk in and steal our cash till,” Juliano said. “Just $100 in cash — that’s pretty much all they took.”
The coffee shop did not have surveillance footage of that burglary, but both break-ins unfolded similarly with cash drawers targeted and glass front doors as the entry points.
While Salt Lake City police as of late Thursday had not yet said anything about any possible connection between the two burglaries, the owners acknowledged the damage was the same.
“Yeah, overall, it’s a violating experience,” Juliano said.
Rosenberg expressed a similar sentiment.
“They can pay me for replacing the glass,” Rosenberg said. “They can pay me for the anguish they’ve caused.”
Rosenberg urged anyone with information to contact the Salt Lake City Police Department at 801-799-3000.
He hoped his surveillance footage might hold the clues to solve potentially multiple crimes.
“It’s extremely frustrating, you know,” Rosenberg said. “It seems like some pranksters who think it’s funny, but it’s not.”
