PORT ANGELES — With no sign of a break-in, the theft of $500 from a downtown restaurant this week has its owner wondering just what happened.
First Street Haven owner Mike French said the business’ two cash boxes were missing when employees arrived Wednesday morning.
One thing is clear, he said, the restaurant at 107 E. First St. was burglarized.
What isn’t clear, French said, is how.
There were no broken windows, no kicked-in doors, and no turned over chairs or signs of anything being disturbed.
French said the money can be easily replaced, but what bothers him as a business owner are the unanswered questions.
“You have all these questions in your head over how they would have done it and why,” he said.
French said his first thought was that a former employee, perhaps disgruntled, had burglarized the restaurant with the use of a stolen or copied key. But no one in particular comes to mind, he said.
Police officer Allen Brusseau, who is investigating the burglary, said that’s a possibility.
But he also said it’s possible that a door was simply left unlocked when the last of the staff left Tuesday evening.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” Brusseau said of current or former employees burglarizing a business.
“Usually, it is a disgruntled employee, but we don’t have evidence of a disgruntled employee.”
Most of the time, he said, burglaries that occur with no sign of a break-in happen because of an unlocked door.
“I have a feeling that could be the case . . . I just don’t know for sure,” Brusseau said.
The officer said there haven’t been any recent reports of similar burglaries.
Anyone with information on the burglary should phone the Port Angeles Police Department at 360-452-4545.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
