Montreal business owners are facing thousands in damages after a series of break-ins in recent weeks.
Scott Usheroff, owner of La Spada, woke up on a morning in late March to a call from his wife saying the restaurant had been broken into and the safe stolen.
While the safe was empty, La Spada was left with thousands of dollars in damages.
“Our alarm system was broken, that’s how we found out the hard way. So we had to replace our entire alarm system, we had to replace all the locks, get new keys, medical — very expensive,” Usheroff said.
“On his way out, (the robber) knocked over some bottles of wine with the safe from our seller down there,” Usheroff said, adding that he estimated the damages to be $3,000 to $4,000.
“I just don’t see the value here,” Usheroff added. “The only saving grace for me is imagining (the robber) trying to open the safe for a week and then finding that it was empty.”
Since La Spada was broken into, many other businesses across the city have faced a similar fate.
At Bocadillo Bistro in Little Italy, owner Marco Russo said his restaurant experienced its own break-in at the end of March too.
Russo says his wife came in one morning only to find the cash register open and everything out of place as well as about $1,200 in bottles stolen from the bar.
“It was very unsettling. It’s weird, like you feel like, you know, invaded. You see like everything was touched and everything was moved and it’s not nice,” Russo said.
Russo says new equipment to prevent future break-ins will set them back about $4,500.
“The lock is expensive. Every key is like $40, $50 each. We have to change everything. The door now it says not closing well. So we have to fix that too,” he added.
Restaurant Bossa on Wellington Street, also experienced a break-in even though it was properly locked and equipped with a functioning alarm system, says co-owner Daniel Lo Manto.
Lo Manto explained that the perpetrator destroyed the lock mechanism on the front door, went straight to the cash registers, ripped both units out of the counter, and walked out — all in under 60 seconds.
“We must replace the door and lock, produce new keys, purchase and install two new cash registers, for a total estimated cost of roughly $3,000,” Lo Manto said, in a statement to CityNews.
“In our tight-margin industry, this is a substantial and unexpected financial hit.”
La Spada owner Usheroff echoed Lo Manto, saying that targeting cash-strapped restaurants didn’t make much sense.
“Restaurants don’t frequently have cash on hand. Most people pay with cards. We’re already a low margin business. We’re just trying to make people happy and make a couple bucks here and there,” Usheroff said.
“I think we should have some sort of, maybe more frequent or some sort of a local watch system,” Usheroff said. “Some people that monitor areas that are getting hit at prime times.”
CityNews reached out to the SPVM for comment. They said they could not discuss ongoing investigations, but confirmed that police stations in affected areas reported no recent increase in break-ins.
SPVM also shared tips to reduce the risk of theft:
• Check that all doors and secondary exits are properly locked
• Ensure that alarm systems and cameras are functioning correctly
• Maintain adequate lighting around access points
• Report any suspicious presence or activity to us
