HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — In the days following Hurricane Beryl, the average number of property reports received by the Houston Police Department each day increased more than fourfold.
A spokesman said there were an average of 10 reports of store burglaries per day in June.
From Monday, when Beryl made landfall, through the following Saturday, authorities received 259 reports of cases, an average of 43 a day.
The day after the storm, Chanon Yong Sanguanchai said staff at Sala Thai Eatery arrived at work to find their business had been robbed at about 6am.
Sara’s opened two months ago at 200 Westheimer in Montrose.
Sanguanchai said the storm had knocked power out to surrounding businesses but not to his restaurant, whose surveillance cameras had captured the incident.
One man used a tool to break the glass in the front door and gained entry with the other man.
“They put all the alcohol in a trash can right next to the bar and took the trash can away,” Sanguanchai said.
A safe, which had a small amount of cash inside, was also stolen, he said.
On Friday morning, Bayou City Seafood was robbed less than five miles away.
Owner Dale Peters said he prepared the restaurant for the storm by keeping all food refrigerated, looking after his staff and removing expensive IT equipment.
“Whenever there’s a power outage, there’s always the fear that it’s going to hit people,” Peters said.
The restaurant, which has been in business for more than 30 years, lost power during Monday’s storm.
Peters said he got a call early Friday morning reporting a break-in at his restaurant and rushed to the business in Richmond, near the West Loop, where he found three doors had been damaged in the crime, with damages totaling about $20,000.
“They had two bins full of alcohol at one end of the centre and I think the officers ruined that part,” Peters said.
Peters said a passing officer noticed a car with its lights on parked outside a darkened store around 3 a.m. and ran the license plate, which he believes is where the suspect left a trash can full of alcohol.
Authorities later announced that arrests had been made.
“My job is accountability,” Peters said. “I am accountable to my restaurants and my staff. I would like to see us as a city start holding perpetrators accountable for their actions. If there’s no accountability, why would we stop?”
There was a power outage at Peters’ restaurant, so cameras couldn’t capture what was going on inside.
Despite the similarities between the situations at Sarah’s and Bayou City Seafood, authorities have not said the two are related.
The law allows local prosecutors’ offices to increase penalties for certain crimes that are in some way related to a disaster after the disaster.
“I think this is a time when we should all come together and help each other, but instead they’re just taking advantage of others and benefiting themselves, so I think it’s a really good policy at this point,” Sanguanchai said.
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