String of restaurant break-ins in Chandler within an hour under investigation

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Chandler Police detectives are looking into a string of restaurant burglaries they believe were all committed by the same suspects.

The break-ins happened on Sunday, June 4 between 3 and 4 a.m. They're not in the same strip mall, but they're pretty close to one another.

The restaurants all had windows and/or glass doors broken and registers or safes stolen.

String of restaurant break-ins in Chandler

One of those businesses was BKD's Backyard Joint near McQueen and Pecos roads. It happened around 3 a.m.

"Thankfully our security system, alarm and several cameras caught great footage of all 4 of them along with their vehicle, a white Mercedes CLS 450," the restaurant said in a Facebook post.

They say police got to the scene within 7 minutes.

Surveillance footage: BKD's Backyard Joint break-in

"Cripple our business if you will. It’s difficult. It hurts," said Kelly Cooper, owner of BKD's Backyard Joint.

Instead of focusing on serving customers and making a profit, he and several other restaurant owners now have to spend time and money fixing what burglars broke.

"The safe that’s gone, the printer that they destroyed. The monitor that got destroyed. All the little things that you don’t really think about," Cooper said. "All the business owners that put everything into their business, and you have somebody come and like it’s nothing to them, take it from you."

The break-in affects his employees, and it upsets his customers, many of who've been loyal since he opened.

"Frustrated isn’t the word I would use. I would honestly say pissed off," a customer said.

Instead of breaking in and taking, the customer says to ask for help if you need it.

"Kelly, Brandon and Dan, even Chef Mark, if you need something, they’ll give you a free plate of food. If they can’t do it, then I’ll do it too," he said.

Cooper is worried this isn’t the last Chandler has seen of these suspects, saying, "I have to spend the time now both recovering and repairing from this, and now I have to worry about ‘is my staff safe? Are they going to come back?’"