A small business owner in Dallas is picking up the pieces after being burglarized twice in three months.
The owner of Peaberry Coffee, Elijah Salazar, shared surveillance footage with NBC 5 showing a man using what appears to be a crowbar to pop open the key box for the shop. The man walks in, and at a different angle, he’s seen using the same crowbar behind the cash register.
Salazar opened the shop on West Kiest Boulevard some six years ago and said these crimes hit hard and set him back financially.
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“[He] Took the whole register,” he said. “Yanked it out from where it was and ended up finding a more secluded area near the shop and I think they just stomped on it until it opened, and they were able to pull all the cash out.”
As if one time wasn’t enough, on December 8 it happened again. This time the suspect smashed the front door.
“It’s pretty tiresome, honestly,” Salazar said. “We try to not make it a lot of other people’s issues, but you know this kind of repeated offense does hinder us in a lot of ways.”
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Salazar filed police reports on both occasions and said he was working to recoup the financial loss from damages. He’s more concerned about how this affects the surrounding community.
“I teach down the street not far from the shop and it’s all very intentional to build something positive in the area that we want to share,” he said. “So, it feels like when something like this happens it’s not only happening to us, it’s happening to the community.”
People have stepped up in a major way since Sunday, donating more than $2,000 for repairs.
“It is important to have that support and know that we are important to people in their daily lives as well,” said Salazar.
NBC 5 reached out to the Dallas Police Department for additional information or leads on arrests. They told us the investigation is ongoing.
Salazar tells us he’s now gone to cashless pay at the coffee shop.
In a weekly crime report from Dallas Police submitted to the city council, numbers as of December 10 show burglaries of business are up by 2.5% in a year-to-date comparison. Robberies of businesses are up 6%.
