Wichita restaurant broken into again; neighboring businesses worry they could be next

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Someone broke into Sazon Mexican Restaurant around 4:45 a.m. Thursday, months after a separate break-in at the business in July.

The restaurant says is losing another day of income as it works to reopen.

“It’s a bit weird that it happened again, but, it is what it is,” Manager Eli Cruz said.

He provided security video that shows a person breaking the door and stealing the register. The person is different from the one who broke in during July.

“The features that we can make out, looks way older than the other guy,” Cruz said.

The restaurant first thought the person kicked in the door. Staff then saw the rock the restaurant uses to hold its flags down and determined the person threw it into the glass to break it.

“It’s a little hard to just immediately bounce back from it, but that’s what we’re trying to do,” Cruz said. “It’s annoying. It’s frustrating, it’s annoying, and it’s tiring, knowing that this could happen again, or that it has happened again.”

The restaurant received a quote to fix the damage. Now the restaurant is upgrading the door and other safety measures.

“We got quoted again for the door. This time we’re upgrading a little bit, but now we’re looking upwards to around $700 just for the glass,” Cruz said

Neighboring business concerned

The break-ins have concerned the neighboring business, Bubl Works. Owner Tyler Bronzell said the business cannot afford a break-in.

“Honestly, every day I come here I’m scared that there’s gonna be a break in, and I get here and I feel relief when, that’s how scared I am everyday,” Bronzell said.

“It’s really scary to think that I could go in debt because of someone doing something stupid,” Bronzell said.

Bronzell said Bubl Works might have to move if a break-in happened there.

“Right now, I’m hoping to stay. If this happened to us, I’m not sure if we’d be able to, to stay here, honestly, because no matter how many cameras you can get, it can still happen,” Bronzell said.

For their part, Sazon is taking steps to prevent another break-in.

“We’re looking into a better security system. Honestly, we’re trying to group the funds to actually invest in a security system like this,” Cruz said.