AUSTIN, Texas — A local drive-in movie theater is reeling from yet another burglary.
In an Instagram post Tuesday, Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-in said its newest location on VFW Road, in the Parmer Lane and Tech Ridge Boulevard area of northeast Austin, was burgled this week.
"Now, we have officially been robbed at every one of our locations," Blue Starlite wrote.
The drive-in said it was already using the last of its working equipment because "due to previous robberies, we no longer have backup equipment." Much of the business' equipment was stolen at its downtown location, off San Antonio Street, in January 2023.
The drive-in closed its other location in the Mueller neighborhood last July and opened the VFW location last fall.
According to Blue Starlite, all of its tech equipment from its main office trailer at the VFW location was stolen, including Blu-Ray players, iPads, projectors, cords and AV supplies. The business said it's able to run a few screens at the VFW location this week and in the future, but until it can replace the main equipment it has lost, it won't be able to add additional independent titles to its slate.
"We are pretty devastated that we took another hit and, to be honest, we can’t really take any more hits," the theater wrote on Instagram. "We will soldier on and will do our best to stay open in the way we have been this year. But it is going to be hard. It already was hard."
"We are small local business. And if people keep stealing from small local businesses – there is already so few small local businesses, and it's becoming harder and harder to open small businesses. Anyone that does that, in this city in particular, it's the lowest of the low," said Josh Frank, owner of both Blue Starlite and Eastside Cinema in East Austin. "When you're a small business, you're running it by yourself. It hurts. It's very personal, a violation, when something like this happens."
Frank has created a GoFundMe campaign to collect donations to replace the stolen equipment and add additional security elements to the VFW location.
Blue Starlite's downtown location remains open on a limited schedule. The theater encourages anyone interested in helping out, to buy tickets to an upcoming show or secure a private rental to help it survive this latest blow.