Beloved Sylmar restaurant, Buffalo Bruce's Mercantile, ransacked by robbers

The Sylmar community is working to help one of their own, after a beloved local restaurant was ransacked by thieves over the weekend. 

Vivian Hartman, one of the owners of Buffalo Bruce's Mercantile, which has served locals with coffee and barbecue dishes for more than two decades, shared an emotional video on the restaurant's Instagram page after seeing the destruction left behind. 

"They destroyed our spot, took all our equipment, they destroyed everything," she can be heard saying, fighting through the tears. She and her husband, Bruce, say that they essentially have to start over following the incident, which targeted their sole source of survival. 

The video shows trash and items strewn all over the restaurant, tables and chairs flipped and drawers and cabinets ripped off of hinges amidst the destruction.

According to a GoFundMe fundraiser started by community members, the "cherished establishment fell victim to a senseless act of vandalism and all of their valuables have been stolen."

It's unclear exactly what and how much was taken from the restaurant. 

Los Angeles Police Department investigators are expected to survey the scene further on Wednesday, asking the owners to refrain from cleaning the property until they can do so.