Police are searching for a burglary crew who hit three San Fernando Valley locations belonging to the same Italian restaurant chain in less than an hour Wednesday morning.
The brief crime spree began around 3 a.m. when surveillance video shows the suspects arriving in a dark-colored sedan to the Maria’s Italian Kitchen location in Encino.
Three masked and hooded thieves got out of the vehicle holding crowbars and forced their way into the business where they took a cash-filled safe from the restaurant’s office.
Operations Manager Peggy Gonzales told KTLA she went to the restaurant when the alarm went off and while she was waiting for police she got a call about an alarm going off for a break-in at the Woodland Hills location.
The thieves left empty-handed but broke a glass door and damaged the office area, Gonzales said.
About 15 minutes later, she got another call informing her that the Sherman Oaks restaurant had also been broken into.
Los Angeles police are investigating the burglaries and believe the same suspects are responsible in each case.
Chain owner Madelyn Alfano said the thieves probably didn’t get away with a lot of money because the businesses had gone mostly cashless since the pandemic but the damage will be costly.
Alfano also said she would like to go completely cashless to make the restaurants less attractive to burglars but a motion being considered by the city of Los Angeles to ban cashless businesses may make that impossible.
“If there’s no cash to be had, there’s no reason for someone to break into a business,” Alfano said.
Those backing the cashless business ban say the move would exclude people from the marketplace who may not be able to obtain bank accounts or have been denied access to credit.