TAMPA – Surveillance cameras captured a burglary at a Seminole Heights restaurant.
The Tampa Police Department is investigating the burglary that happened early Friday morning.
By the numbers:
Ichiban Sushi & Ramen moved to N Florida Ave. about three and a half months ago, after previously being open on Fowler Ave. for 39 years.
The owners were out of town when the burglary happened.
Around 2:45 a.m. Friday, Caroline Bond, the owner, was awake when she got a notification on her phone from the restaurant’s exterior camera.
“I was like, what is going on?” she said. “I thought someone was doing some weird business. I wasn’t thinking they would come to rob us.”
Bond and her fiancé, Mark Birkin, woke up later that morning to messages from neighboring businesses and photos of the restaurant’s front door shattered.
“It’s just the most awesome neighborhood where nothing like that happens, and then you start looking at the video and I just told her, I go, ‘God’. I go, ‘I just feel violated’,” Birkin said.
The bottom half of the front door had been shattered. The restaurant’s security camera captured a masked person darting through the dark restaurant around 6 a.m. Friday, eventually making their way to the register.
“He was in here for one and a half, two minutes, max,” Birkin said.
The couple says about $800 was stolen from the register, in addition to more than $2000 of damage.
“To try to make the $2200 which just cost us for the door, the tint and everything, you’ve got to sell about $11-12,000 to make $2,200,” Birkin said.
What they’re saying:
“It’s shocking, it’s shocking. We’ve been on (Fowler) for 39 years,” Bond said. “We never got (something) like this.”
She says they made sure their employees were paid, but she hopes they can catch the suspect, so this doesn’t happen to another business.
“Someone is going to have the video and going to know this guy,” Birkin said. “So, hopefully we catch him.”
What’s next:
The Tampa Police Department is investigating the burglary at Ichiban Sushi & Ramen.
Police are also investigating another recent burglary at Blind Tiger, off Sligh Ave. However, police say there’s no connection between the two cases at this point.
What you can do:
If you have any information about either case, you’re asked to contact the Tampa Police Department at 813-231-6130, send a tip through the TampaPD app or contact Crimestoppers of Tampa Bay.
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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Kylie Jones.