It was a couple of restless nights for the owners of The Prague Café in Penticton.
Three break-ins, including two in one night, over a span of three days has left owner Michal Gjurisic frustrated.
READ MORE: Another Penticton business broken into
“I was sleeping in the living room so I could put my security system camera on the big TV, it hasn’t been comfortable. But if it was noisy then I would be alerted and I would know someone was in my café,” said Gjurisic.
On Sunday morning someone broke into his store located on Marina Way. The security cameras showed one male stealing a small amount of money that was in the store, a cell phone and other items. Gjurisic decided to order an upgrade for his security system that was to be delivered on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Recent break in leaves Penticton business owner frustrated
“Tuesday night I was at home and about 11:45 p.m. someone broke in again. He left and someone different came and was checking all the doors around 12:15 a.m. The door was open from before and that person also came in and took food and left,” said Gjurisic. “I went home after speaking with police but I could not sleep, so I came back to the cafe. I didn’t have any food prepared for the next day, I spent the early morning doing that.”
READ MORE: Prague Café a favourite in Penticton
Gjurisic, who lives in the downtown area, said in the winter things were mostly quiet besides the homeless person he once found sleeping inside his vehicle. He said over the past few weeks it has been an every day occurrence, around 5 or 6 a.m., to see a lot of “strange” people hanging around Marina Way.
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“I travel a lot around the world, I have never seen this size of town have as much trouble. I walk to work and I wasn’t scared, now it is 6 a.m. in the morning and I am a little bit scared. You see a lot of strange people on bikes with backpacks travelling around. There are people that sit on our chairs on the patio and bring their shopping carts or across the street where we have chairs set up on the grass. I said to them it is for customers and they smile because they know nothing can be done,” said Gjurisic.
The Prague Café owners would like to see more patrols from bylaw and RCMP in the area to perhaps deter people with bad intentions from hanging out or using the areas designated for customers only.
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