Owner of popular LA brunch spot Gritz N Wafflez closes shop to track down car stolen during grocery run

The popular Pico-Union soul food brunch restaurant Gritz N Wafflez was closed on Sunday after the owner's car was stolen during an early morning grocery run. 

In a post on Instagram, Jurni Rayne shared the tumultuous morning they had before the restaurant even opened. 

"It's been a DAY and it's only 6:30 a.m.," the post said. "As I was loading up groceries for today, I realized that I forgot milk and macaroni. I run in and grab it and come out and my car is gone."

Rayne says she ran back inside of her second location, a larger spot that she'll soon be moving into where she currently stores her food, after realizing she didn't have everything she needed for the day. 

Before she could get back outside, her car was gone. 

"Honestly, I'm upset about the car, but Im more upset about my groceries," Rayne's post said. "Needless to say, we are closing for today because we won't have enough food to get through even half the day."

Instead, she set out on a mission to locate her car after receiving some fraud alert text messages from her banking accounts, as her credit card was inside of the car when it was taken. 

She says that she received a notification about a charge at a 7-Eleven, which definitely wasn't her. 

"I called 7-Eleven corporate, they were so nice, and I said, 'Where is store number blah, blah, blah,' and we went over there," Rayne said. 

This was just the first stop of a few, as the thief left a trail of clues behind as he stopped at different stores across LA County. 

One of those stops was a Walgreens, which Rayne called to ask if the perpetrator was still within their sight. Security informed her that after the card was declined there, he went across the street to the Target location. 

Again, Rayne rushed to the location, where she finally found the man and his dog inside of her car as he was trying to leave the store's parking structure. 

"I'm like, 'Get out of my car!'" Rayne recalled. "He nonchalantly opened the door, got out the car. He said, 'Come on dog,' and then they just walked away."

While she's ecstatic to get her car back, she knows that Sunday's events could have turned out much worse. 

"My momma always told me that God takes care of babies and fools," she said. "I was a fool today and God took care of me."

Gritz N Wafflez is located on S. Alvarado Street and is traditionally open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. six days a week.