East Austin small businesses hit by string of break-ins, suspect identified

Casey Buckingham, owner of The Plant Society, woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom on Tuesday. When she groggily reached for her phone to check the time, she saw that it was 4 a.m. — and her store along East 12th Street was being robbed.

The notification from her security system read, “Someone is in your store right now.” She opened her phone and accessed the security camera to see a man stealing her iPad, which she uses to process payments. The front window was completely shattered. Buckingham said it will cost around $1,500 to replace.

Between replacing the window and the stolen equipment, the break-in will cost her about a week’s worth of profit.

“It was violating,” Buckingham said. “I didn’t expect to be broken into because I’m just a plant store.”

After going on social media, she realized she wasn’t alone. In the last three weeks, small businesses across East Austin experienced similar break-ins. After pooling together their security footage, some businesses were able to identify the same person breaking into each of their stores.

The Pearl and Fin Oyster Bar on West Fifth Street was another such business. Kevin Le had owned the restaurant for only four months when it was broken into on July 3 by the same person as Buckingham’s store, they said after viewing security footage from Ava’s Nail and Spa next door, which was broken into the same night.

One of his doors was completely smashed, and multiple iPads and expensive liquor were stolen. As a precaution, Le removed all his alcohol from their display shelves and put it in locked cabinets.

Le was gearing up to spend thousands of dollars on remodeling the restaurant, but now he’s hesitating to make improvements.

“Before I invest, I want to ensure the city will do something,” he said.

Austin Police Department spokesperson Clara Ash said police have identified a suspect, are preparing warrants and pursuing criminal charges. The investigation is ongoing, she said, and police are trying to determine the extent to which these break-ins are related.

Mariaha Richmond, owner of La Plancha, which was also broken into, said she feels a “sense of justice” that police are taking action, but it will still be difficult for her business to recover.

La Plancha was broken into Monday night around 3 a.m. Similarly to the other recent break-ins, her front window was shattered beyond repair, and her beverage cooler was left open for hours, rendering it inoperable. The only things taken were an Apple watch charger and some business cards.

Richmond said the damage totals about $5,000, which she will have to pay out of pocket. As a small, Mexican street food restaurant, that amounts to about a week and a half of lost profit.

“Our margins are really tight, so there really is no room for error when you're a small business,” Richmond said. “Things like this can make or break people and businesses, (but) we're not going to give up.”