Early Monday morning, two unidentified suspects entered Red Bear Brewing Company, a gay-owned bar in Northeast Washington, D.C., and ransacked the bar, apparently for financial gain.
Simon Bee, Red Bear’s director of operations and one of the bar’s co-owners, said: metro weekly At around 2:43 a.m., they received a call from an alarm company informing them that someone had broken into the building.
“Now,Then you get a false signal, but never at that time of the morning,” Bee said. “Then I knew something was going on. So I told them to send the police and a few minutes later they called me and said there was a trespass and to go there. I got it.”
“Police investigated everything,” Bee said. A dog was also sent in to make sure no one was still inside. once they understand There was no one there, so we went inside to assess the damage. ”
Red Bear’s front glass door had been smashed. One of the cash registers behind the bar had been thrown to the floor, but no money had been taken. The door to the office had been smashed open and the office ransacked, but the would-be thieves did not appear to have taken any loot.
Nothing was missing from the bar’s inventory.
“circle“We have a safe, but we don’t keep a lot of cash on hand anyway,” Bee said, adding that the intruder saw a safe in his office but was unable to open it. He added that he believed it. “The safe is very large and sturdy. So I really think they probably realized right away that it wasn’t going to happen. ”
Surveillance camera video shows two people wearing baggy hooded clothing, but their faces are unrecognizable.
“Then later that same day, we received footage from the patio from the homeowner. You could see two people being dropped off in a gray sedan,” he said. “They ran They definitely knew what they were doing. They took a sledgehammer and banged on the door several times, eventually giving it a break before they could get inside. They came out after 3 or 4 minutes and picked me up. They were seen hiding for several minutes, but when the getaway car arrived, they were picked up and drove off. ”
Police advised Red Bear’s owner that there have been other reports of break-ins in the Near Northeast area of Washington, D.C.
The car carrying the robbers was a silver hatchback. Bee was unable to identify the car model or license plate number, but someone else did. He watched breaking news on the DC FOX affiliate WTTG It included reports of various break-ins throughout the District of Columbia, and the website featured a photo of a silver getaway car.
“It was the same car that was seen in the surveillance video, so I think at least the police knew about it,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police Department has requested the cooperation of 100 new soldiers to protect retail stores during the busy year-end sales season. Police announced that they have made more than 1,000 arrests in retail thefts this year. The D.C. Council passed it in March. emergency legislation This would allow prosecutors to impose harsher charges and penalties for retail robberies.
Bee said damage to the space was relatively minor and he estimated the damage at roughly $3,000. The bar has filed an insurance claim and hopes insurance will cover the cost of repairs.
He praised the Metropolitan Police’s quick response to reports of a break-in, noting that police arrived at the scene “before I could even put my socks on.”
He said the reaction to the robbery from local residents and patrons was heartwarming.
“The response to our Facebook post was nothing but love and support,” he said.
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Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
