Houston police are investigating a potential connection among a series of restaurant burglaries that occurred this week.
Within a span of three days, three restaurants in the Heights area and one in Rice Military were targeted. All four establishments are situated within a three-mile radius of each other.
The incidents unfolded as follows: On Tuesday around 3:40 a.m., perpetrators smashed through a glass door at Best Regards on West 11th Street. The following day at approximately 4:40 a.m., another break-in occurred at a restaurant on Washington Avenue near Reinerman. On the same morning, a window was broken at the Domino’s on West 18th Street. The most recent incident took place just after 2 a.m. on Thursday at Preslee’s on West 19th Street.
Surveillance footage captured a silver Infiniti entering the parking lot of Preslee’s. Two individuals with concealed faces were seen surveying the restaurant before breaking through a glass door at the back. Inside the restaurant, they attempted to remain inconspicuous while holding what appeared to be a sack. When the alarm was triggered, the burglars fled the scene empty-handed.
This marks the second break-in at Preslee’s this month, with the previous incident occurring on January 14th when bottles of liquor were stolen. In 2022, the restaurant was also targeted, resulting in the theft of a safe containing $5,000.
Ryan Manos, operations manager at Preslee’s, expressed the challenges posed by the repeated break-ins, stating, “It’s rough because we’re trying to operate a restaurant, which is hard to do anyways, with food costs and all that other stuff, and now we have to continually replace items.”
