DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — Downtown Durham businesses continue to be the target of thieves. Bars, restaurants, and even barbershops have been hit.
“It just continues to happen. Twice in one week. Unacceptable. Unacceptable, ” said Jared at Rock’s, Bar, and Hair Shop.
He is the manager at the barbershop and on Monday he was once again cleaning up broken glass. The shop was broken into last Tuesday and again overnight. Jared said they stole beer and cash. “I arrived at the shop early in the morning and found that the window had been broken back here behind the bar,” he said.
Frustration is spreading among business owners as reports of break-ins pile up. Downtown business owners have reported break -ins throughout January and it’s still happening.
Durham Police arrested 30-year-old Keith Wright on January 30th for nine counts of breaking and entering and eight counts of felony larceny across nearly a dozen businesses from January 23rd through January 28th.
According to arrest warrants, Wright was able to get away with small amounts of cash, and personal property in some cases valued at around $250.
One of the businesses police said Wright burglarized was Fate & Folklore on Market Street where the investigator said he stole two gold rings valued at $350. The owner Diana Abreu said the break-ins are another setback after dealing with two weekends of winter during an already slow season.
“I feel taken advantage of. I feel uneasy. Unsafe, which sucks because I didn’t feel that way in Durham,” said Abreu.
She is a new business owner in downtown Durham. She said the thought of it potentially happening again leaves her uneasy. “It’s like, am I going to have to keep dishing out money to fix my window because somebody decides they might want to break in,” Abreu asked.
Business owners are now calling for more police presence overnight when these break-ins are happening.
“We really need a little bit of help in the wee hours of the night,” said Walter Stanley. He is a part of the restaurant group that owns about a handful of businesses including Mavericks, Federal, and James and Joyce.
Stanley said all those businesses were broken into within the past few weeks. “We upped our security. We changed locks. We just added features for security. And it’s still happened. So, it’s just not enough,” said Stanley.
Eyewitness News took their concerns to Mayor Leo Williams who said he understands the frustrations of small business owners. “I’ve been speaking with quite a few small business owners here, it’s a community I come from. Their voices want to be heard, but not only heard, but they want solutions,” he said.
Williams said some of those solutions could include more police presence. “There needs to be more presence, whether that’s through ambassador programs, you know, whether it’s through, you know, patrol officers on the beat or whatever it is, the first thing we need to do is make sure we have we sit down to have a conversation collectively with our small business community,” said Williams.
The mayor said he is working with the police department to set up meetings with the business community. “I’m grateful that our police department has agreed to do some small group meetings. I’ll be working to help convene those gatherings just so we can understand, just like we’re doing with everything else, where the solutions are community-centric, community-rooted. We’re going to do the same thing with our small business community,” said Mayor Williams.
“We can’t brag on our small businesses, but not put in the infrastructure to support them,” he continued.
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