ROUND ROCK, Texas — After four Round Rock businesses were broken into near East Old Settlers Boulevard and Sunrise Road, small business owners are left picking up the pieces.
Surveillance video from Beijing Express shows the crooks crawling over broken glass and trying to stay hidden.
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"I built every piece of this restaurant and I'm very disappointed that someone came in and tried to take it," said Jerel Booker, Snack Room owner. "I know life is tough out there. We're hiring here at Snack Room. You could've just come in and got a job, you don't need to go steal for these sort of things."
Booker said a few people smashed his door, crawled behind his register and messed with it to find money. The business was supposed to have a soft open on Sunday, but Booker was forced to push it back to Thursday.
"It's costing me time and money for my grand opening. We're about to have our soft opening," said Booker. "It’s a family-run business. So, it impacts a lot. I have staff here who are looking to get paid and get started. We’re excited. We’ve worked hard to put this building together and the supplies here and the product that we have. We serve ice cream, shakes, boozy shakes and teas."
The other businesses impacted were Beijing Express, Sunrise Teahouse and Greenhouse Craft Food.
The Beijing Express owner said in a statement:
"We will step up and enhance our security equipment and also thanks to the law enforcement who came to our store."
Next door to Beijing Express, Greenhouse Craft Food owner Rob Snow told KVUE the suspects took money from the registers.
"Hopefully they can take that and just know when they hit a small business, it's just, we're just all on the same boat. Like, why are you attacking someone who's on the same boat as you," Snow asked.
Snow said fixing everything will cost him $1,500. But there's a silver lining since Saturday's burglary for Snow: customers have been pouring in.
"When something like this happens to a place like Greenhouse, it's really disheartening," said Snow. "Building up for six-and-a-half years and trying to be a part of the community and when something like this happens, it really just ... it's sad."
Booker said the burglary has definitely been a setback, but he's ready to open Snack Room on Thursday.
"We're just not going to allow stealing and breaking entering and robbing in Round Rock and we're just not going to tolerate it," said Booker.
Round Rock police said there are no suspect descriptions and no arrests have been made.
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