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Burglars cause extensive damage at Tampa restaurant
Burglars damage the Lucky Tigre restaurant, stealing the cash drawer, and urinating inside. Fox 13's Kylie Jones reports.
TAMPA - Less than a week before Christmas, a locally-owned restaurant in West Tampa is cleaning up a mess. The Lucky Tigre was broken into overnight, after security cameras captured someone smashing the front door.
The backstory:
Suzi Rue, the baker at The Lucky Tigre, showed up early Friday morning to open the restaurant, but she was met with an unpleasant surprise.
"I unlocked the gate," she said. "I look up, and I see something sparkling on the ground. My first thought was, someone spilled a bunch of ice. And then I was like, 'Oh, that's not ice. It's broken glass.'"
Rue says someone had shattered the glass door of the restaurant. She called 911 and then called her friend and the owner, Julie Feliciano. Feliciano says she immediately jumped into action to try to get the restaurant cleaned up.
"My thought was like, 'How much is this going to cost?'" she said. "'What can we do to get open? We've got to make sure that, especially before the holidays, that our team is able to make money so that they can buy presents and support their families.'"
Feliciano says their surveillance cameras captured a man on crutches hoisting himself over the front gate, then throwing what appears to be a brick through the glass door. Their cameras then caught the person ransacking the restaurant, stealing inventory and urinating throughout the building.
"We had to get emergency glass service, we have to get a new freezer or get a freezer repair, you know," Feliciano said. "Our team wasn't able to come in. We lost produce, they stole inventory, they stole equipment, they took cash out of the cash box."
Staff say the damage and theft total was at least $2,000.
They say later on in the overnight hours, their security cameras show a second person coming through the restaurant.
"It seemed like one person broke in and messed around, and then I don't know if somebody walked by and saw an opportunity to take things that they wanted, but there were two separate people," Rue said.
Dig deeper:
Staff said they reported the break-in to the Tampa Police Department, which confirmed they responded to the Lucky Tigre just before 6 a.m. after reports of the burglary. They said the business provided them with its surveillance video.
TPD officials said Vaughn Chambers Jr., 48, was identified as a person of interest. Chambers was taken into custody a few hours after the incident and is now facing a charge of burglary of an unoccupied structure and petit theft, according to investigators.
TPD has said this remains an active investigation, and didn't confirm if they were looking for a second person.
What they're saying:
"It's pushing us backwards when we're trying so hard to move forward in what feels like sand this year," Rue said.
The Lucky Tigre had only opened at its West Tampa location three months ago. Feliciano says they used to operate out of a food truck before moving to their brick and mortar location. She says the restaurant first started as a pop-up side hustle in 2020.
"We're just like, people trying to make ends meet the best that we can, and here we are," Feliciano said.
They say it was disheartening to see someone do this, especially with less than a week until Christmas.
"I think, more so, the impact that it has on our team, I feel like, is like the worst, because we're all like a family here," Feliciano said.
What's next:
The staff spent their morning cleaning up, so they could open Friday afternoon. It will also be open through the weekend and most of the next week.
The Source: Information for this story came from interviews with restaurant staff conducted by Fox 13's Kylie Jones.