BALTIMORE (WBFF) — It’s not the smash opening they were hoping for — just five days after bringing a California burger chain to Baltimore, “Wanna Smash” was broken into overnight Wednesday.
“We have a cleaning crew that comes every day, and they called me at 6 a.m. and they were just like, hey, just to let you know, your door is missing. And I was like, what do you, what do you mean?” recalled Wanna Smash’s operations manager Dajana Vujatovic.
Surveillance video shows two suspects, hoods up and ski masks on, throwing a rock through a glass side door. Once inside, they move quickly. Grabbing a cash register, safe, printer, iPads, and armfuls of alcohol. As they run out, you can even hear the glass bottles clinking together.
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“We lost out on upwards of $8,000 or $9,000. A good amount,” said Vujatovic.
Especially for a brand-new business. Vujatovic says they’ve since been warned this was far from an isolated incident.
“Some of the neighbors along this block were coming to us and telling us that their homes were burglarized the last few weeks and months,” she said.
Additionally, just a few blocks away, a local ice-cream shop was hit the same night. The sign now taped to Bmore Licks front door, alerting customers to beware of the cracked glass. According to the latest crime report from Baltimore police, in the last month in Southeast Baltimore, robberies are up 82%, burglaries up 15%, and larcenies up 95% compared to this time last year.
“And that was really surprising to hear, because when we were first inquiring about Canton, everybody was telling us, you know, this is a really great space. It’s really safe,” said Vujatovic.
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Area businesses now fear break-ins are becoming all too common, tainting Canton’s reputation, and for Vujatovic, turning what should have been a fresh start, into a costly setback.
“You put in a lot of time and effort and patience into building something, and then there’s someone just comes along and takes from you, and it’s, it’s unfortunate,”she said.
To prevent this from happening again, Vujatovic says they’ve updated their alarm system and will no longer be keeping cash in the registers overnight.
At the time the article was written, Baltimore Police said no arrests had been made.
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