Sacramento grocery stores, eateries hit in string of break-ins
SACRAMENTO — A string of break-ins at small Sacramento grocery stores and eateries has police on the hunt for suspects.
In some cases, the thieves are taking off with the store safes and everything inside them.
Erik Veldman Miller's East Sacramento butcher shop, V. Miller Meats, was targeted by thieves overnight Wednesday. They took his money and left it trashed.
"It sucks," Veldman Miller said. "It was strictly hit the cash register go back to the office, you know look for a safe."
The same night V. Miller Meats was targeted, Compton's Market was also hit in East Sacramento, and Taylor's Market was hit in Land Park.
Their safes were stolen.
"It just sounds like an organized group with a plan, you know?" Taylor's assistant manager Jason Chapman said. "Well, they used our dolly, so they knew where our dollies were, and they walked right in, got it, wheeled it out."
Taylor's, Compton's, V. Miller Meat's, Orphan and Selland's on Broadway have all been broken into in recent weeks.
Sacramento police confirm they are investigating the recent business burglaries. They are advising businesses to remove cash from registers and leave the trays open overnight and to secure their safes to make them less appealing targets.
The most recent Department of Justice crime statistics show non-residential overnight burglaries did rise in Sacramento year-over-year — up to 759 in 2022 from 600 in 2021.
"You feel violated walking in in the morning and the safe is missing," Chapman said.
"I'm still finding glass all over the place," Veldman Miller said.
Is it one group of overnight intruders, or more? The stolen safe suspects are still on the run.