Police are investigating burglaries at two Fort Worth businesses that reported overnight break-in’s during an already challenging week adjusting to new service restrictions.
Heim Barbecue on Magnolia Avenue posted surveillance video on Facebook from the break-in, which shows a man smashing an entrance door open in the middle of the night.
“Every day is hard enough and then you have this type of stuff happening,” co-owner Travis Heim said.
According to Heim, the man only got away with a register which can replace, but it adds to the lists of ups and downs co-owner Emma Heim said their business has dealt with over the past several days. This week, the city of Fort Worth announced tighter restrictions on restaurants to stop the spread of COVID 19.
As of Thursday, dine-in services are not allowed. Restaurants could only offer services like takeout, curbside pickup, drive-through, or delivery.
“It’s been a lot of uncertainty for sure. For us, we’re always so concerned about just our guests and our staff, so we’ve been abiding to all the new rules that have been coming out as of recently,” Emma Heim said. “Personally, we’ve been just anxious – I mean, we don’t really know exactly what’s going to happen from one hour to the next.”
Owners at Panther City BBQ experienced a similar break-in overnight as well. Chris Magallanes said someone broke into their store sometime after 2 a.m. Thursday.
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“At that point, you kind of just want to throw your hands with everything else that’s been going on with our dine being closed down from the state,” Magallanes said. “So, it’s a pretty frustrating thing to walk into first thing in the morning.”
Travis Heim said while it has been frustrating to deal with the break-in during a time of uncertainty, there is one thing they know for sure.
“It’s not going to stop us. We’re going to do everything we can to keep our staff employed and sell barbeque to whoever wants it,” Heim said.
Officer Brad Perez with the Fort Worth Police Department said it’s too early to tell whether these two cases are related, but he did confirm a man matching the suspect description given by owners was located and interviewed.
Perez said that man, whose identity has not been released, was placed under arrest for Class C tickets which he already had warrants for. As of Thursday afternoon, there was not a charged placed against him in connection to the break-in’s.
