NEW ORLEANS — Inside La Patrona restaurant in New Orleans, co-owner Edwin Guzman knows about hard work and good food.
“The most plates we sell are the enchiladas,” said Guzman.
He opened the S. Carrollton Mexican eatery two years ago. “We opened in the middle of the pandemic,” said Guzman. He survived that hit and must now survive another.
“I don’t know how they broke it because the glass was inside,” said Guzman as he points to a busted window.
Guzman says he showed up Sunday morning to find his restaurant burglarized. A hole was busted out of the side window.
“The hole is not big. It’s a small hold,” said Guzman.
He thinks someone got through the window, then opened the back door for other burglars. He says the drawer to the register was ripped out. Coins were scattered on the floor.
“They take it and drop it,” said Guzman “It don’t make sense.”
It didn’t make sense because Guzman says he left the key in the register, on purpose, for this very reason. He says replacing a register is more expensive than having thieves just take what was inside. In this case, he lost about $450 in cash.
“They took like a tequila too,” said Guzman.
About 24 hours later, a similar scene was less than a mile away. A social media post from Seafood Sally’s restaurant on Oak Street said it was burglarized Sunday night. A posted photo shows a broken window, saying the restaurant would be cashless Monday. No one from the restaurant wanted to comment.
“It looks like a safe area, but right now you don’t know,” said Guzman. “You have to be careful where you are going.”
Like the folks at Seafood Sally’s, Guzman must now deal with the damage while still feeding customers.
“We don’t want to stop because we have to make money to replace the window,” said Guzman. Guzman says a contractor told him that’ll cost about $800.
“That’s just for the glass,” said Gusman. “It's expensive glass because they have to make an order for it.”
For now, plywood covers part of the window.
“I don’t want to get too many people inside because it don’t look good,” said Guzman.
Being a small restaurant Guzman says he can’t let frustration get him down. He just hopes whoever did this is served a bit of justice.
The New Orleans Police Department is investigating those robberies but police haven’t said whether they believe they are connected.