The Brief<\/p>\n
Two Houston restaurants were burglarized within days of each other: Trendy Dumpling early Monday morning and The Deck on Fountainview early Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Both businesses say money and equipment or inventory were stolen, while the break-ins also left behind significant property damage.<\/p>\n
The owners say the crimes are especially painful for small businesses and employees who depend on the restaurants for their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
HOUSTON – Two Houston restaurant owners are cleaning up and assessing their losses after separate burglaries just days apart, with both crimes captured on surveillance video.<\/p>\n
Houston restaurants cleaning up following burglaries within days of each other<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
Trendy Dumpling<\/p>\n
Trendy Dumpling owner Ling Wang said her alarm woke her around 1 a.m. Monday. She checked her security cameras but said it was too dark to initially tell what was happening.<\/p>\n
Wang went to the restaurant but said she waited outside until police arrived before going inside.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t want to go into until the police got here, so I was waiting outside for the police to come,” said Wang.<\/p>\n
Once inside, Wang said she discovered the restaurant had lost money and iPads used for its point-of-sale system. Video from the restaurant also shows shattered glass and damage left behind.<\/p>\n
Wang said the burglary comes during an already difficult time for the restaurant industry. Trendy Dumpling had recently posted on social media about slow business during Houston Restaurant Weeks.<\/p>\n
“A lot of our small restaurants are struggling, and they are fighting with the slow season, and this happens and it’s not good,” said Wang.<\/p>\n
The owner said the restaurant now has to pay to repair the broken glass, clean up the damage and replace or recover the equipment that was stolen.<\/p>\n
The Deck on Fountainview<\/p>\n
Just one day earlier, another Houston restaurant was dealing with a similar situation.<\/p>\n
The Deck on Fountainview Sports Bar and Grill, located in the Galleria area, says it was burglarized around 4:42 a.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n
Owner Toby Holt said the business is already struggling financially and the impact of the burglary extends beyond him. He said 15 employees rely on the restaurant to make a living.<\/p>\n
Holt said the burglars made their way into his office and removed a safe that was roughly five feet tall.<\/p>\n
“They got in my office and our safe is about a 5-foot safe, so it’s a big safe, and they took it out the back door,” Holt said.<\/p>\n
Holt stated the burglars also stole approximately $5,200 worth of liquor, using large trash cans to carry it out.<\/p>\n
“They took three big trash cans and just filled them up and hauled them out to their truck or whatever,” Holt said.<\/p>\n
In addition to what was stolen, Holt said several parts of the restaurant were damaged, including doors leading to his office and liquor room.<\/p>\n
The owners previously estimated the burglary caused more than $10,000 in property damage and resulted in more than $7,000 worth of stolen inventory, leaving the small business facing a loss of more than $17,000.<\/p>\n
The Deck has shared surveillance images of the burglars in hopes that someone in the community will recognize them and help investigators identify those responsible.<\/p>\n
For Holt, the burglary has also prompted him to make changes moving forward.<\/p>\n
“I am just going to upgrade my security.”<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
Both restaurants are continuing to operate while dealing with the aftermath of the burglaries.<\/p>\n
Houston police are investigating. It is not yet clear whether investigators believe the two restaurant burglaries are connected.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Ling Wang (owner of Trendy Dumpling), and Toby Holt (owner of The Deck on Fountainview Sports Bar and Grill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Two Houston restaurants were burglarized within days of each other: Trendy Dumpling early Monday morning and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[144945,56,58,57,144943,8851,325,144944,144947,144946],"class_list":["post-416089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-fountainview","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-ling-wang","tag-property-damage","tag-small-business","tag-the-deck","tag-toby-holt","tag-trendy-dumpling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}