HOUSTON — A Houston restaurant owner is frustrated after a string of recent break-ins over the last several months. He said the police aren't doing anything about it.
The owner of City Cellars wine bar and restaurant said he doesn’t know what to do anymore. He feels this thief just keeps coming back for more. He’s gotten away with electronics and cash registers, and the last time he broke in, he went straight for the liquor.
"The first time watching is pure rage," Daniel Wolf said.
Wolf is angry after he said his business has been broken into three times in the last four months. And it’s all caught on camera.
"You see it and you’re, like, 'this guy again,'" Wolf said.
The first time the thief broke the front window. The last two times he’s entered through the back door of the restaurant. Last Friday, the thief went straight to the bar.
"He always goes for the tequila as well as some random items," Wolf said.
Wolf said the thief is even drinking on the job.
"He's literally taking swigs out of the bottle," Wolf said. "We bag it up ... HPD refused to take it."
Wolf thinks it might be someone who knows the lay of the land.
"We believe it’s a former employee's husband that we fired because that employee had stolen a bottle of Patron from us," Wolf said.
So far, he estimates he's suffered more than $50,000 worth of damages. It's a big blow to the small business.
"The last thing we want is another restaurant to be going through what we are going through," Wolf said.
That is why he's frustrated that HPD hasn’t been able to catch the thief, even when they believe they have identified the suspect.
"A piece of paper with the nine-digit case number doesn’t do me any good. That case number means nothing to me. What means something to me is justice. Trying to make what has broken whole again," Wolf said.
KHOU 11 News tried to reach out to the Houston Police Department but the media relations office is closed on weekends. Wolf said he is looking at ways to beef up security at the restaurant.