The holidays are off to a rough start for businesses on and around the Carrollton Avenue corridor that have been burglarized over the past couple of weeks.
Thieves entered Joe’s Sports Bar at 307 Carrollton Avenue through the roof sometime overnight on Saturday, according to business owner Joe Brown.
“Then it rained, and the whole place got flooded,” Brown said.
The business is closed on Sundays, and he didn’t discover the break-in until about 4 p.m. that day.
“I found a mess,” he said. “Someone had come in through the roof, then they pried a metal door off the hinges to get out the back.”
Brown said burglars took about “$300 to $400 in change,” a .38- caliber pistol, an electric drill and other miscellaneous tools.
But the damage to the building caused by the hole in the roof is a much bigger headache.
On Monday, a crew came to patch the roof until the insurance company could come and inspect the damage. Meanwhile, drenching rains poured off and on.
“We were just watching it pour in here,” Brown said, gesturing to a ruined floor and dissolving drywall within the vicinity of the overhead leak.
The business will have to be closed until repairs can be made, Brown said.
Up the street and around the corner, at 400 Lamar St., Gregory Cooper’s re-sale business, Hope’s Treasure Chest, has been broken into twice — once the week before Thanksgiving, then again on Thanksgiving week.
“They destroyed my cash register the first time, trying to get it open,” Cooper said. “Then the second time, they just took the whole thing.”
Cooper said only a small amount of change was in the registers, and he has hesitated to buy a new one after the second break-in. The cost of a new register is around $300.
Thieves took some video gaming systems and games from a display case in the store, a remote control helicopter, an iPhone, two cordless drill sets, a DVD player and a Blue-Ray player.
Cooper said burglars smashed through the side doors of the building to gain entry, on the south side the first time and the north side the second. The damage to the building is covered by insurance, he said, but the stolen merchandise is a loss.
Cooper said he’s discouraged by the recent rash of burglaries around Greenwood.
“It’s not healthy,” he said. He has been encouraged by work on Rail Spike Park that could bring more shoppers and more stability to the area, but these burglaries threaten that progress, he said.
Cooper said thieves had even stolen candy he was selling inside the store to raise money for his church.
“I’m the type of guy here, we try to help people as much as we can,” he said. “Here I’m trying to help people, but I told my wife the other day, people will mess you over.”
Police incident reports indicate burglaries at three other nearby businesses within the same time period.
A store at 310 E. Church St. was broken into on Nov. 23, and a cash register with $60 inside was stolen. H&H Printing at 2003 Carrollton Ave. was burglarized Saturday and reported a desktop computer, five fishing poles and some change stolen from the premises.
Silas Sport Bar and Grill on Carrollton Avenue was burglarized over the weekend after Thanksgiving. The owner at that establishment reported an air conditioner and two round table chandeliers missing.
Police Chief Ray Moore said an investigation into these recent burglaries is seeing some progress.
“We’ve got several suspects we’re looking at, but we don’t have any solid evidence on them yet,” Moore said. “What this is going to be is about two or three people that are doing this.
“We have some good leads, and the investigation is ongoing.”
Anyone with information regarding these burglaries or any others in the city should contact the Police Department at 453-3311 or Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
