Surveillance video captured the moment a suspect used a sledgehammer to break into Ponce’s Mexican Restaurant and took a money bag from their private office.
The incident happened at around 3:30 a.m. Friday along Paseo Del Sur in the 4S Ranch neighborhood of San Diego and resulted in thousands of dollars of damage to the property, according to the owner.
“You just feel violated, you know what I mean," Ponce Meza, owner of Ponce’s Mexican Restaurant said. "You don’t expect something like this to happen and the way that it did happen, the guy busting a sledgehammer and just busting the door open, it’s pretty crazy."
About 20 minutes later and less than a mile away, Mostra Coffee was also targeted.
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“Somebody broke in. They stole our register and our deposit bag in the back,” Joshua Cunningham, area manager for Mostra said.
According to San Diego Sherriff’s Office, they took an undisclosed amount of money.
Jelynn Malone is the co-owner of Mostra Coffee.
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She said the suspect or suspects shattered their glass door and rummaged through the entire store pulling anything and everything they could get their hands on.
“It is really sad that someone would take advantage of a small business owner and it’s not cheap to fix everything that they took and destroyed too,” Malone said.
Just across the way from their coffee shop, their neighbors, Jamba Juice, were broken into as well.
“Our door was completely shattered. We had to repair it with some plywood, but luckily we didn’t have anything taken because we always put our money and anything valuable and in the safe at the end of the night,” Ahri Wakley, Chief Lead of Jamba Juice said.
While they are grateful no one was hurt, they hope the person or persons responsible get caught.
“When I heard that Jamba Juice got broken into, I contacted them and was able to share some of our surveillance video with them so that they could share with their owners,” Meza said.
According to the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, at this time no arrests have been made.
If you have any information relating to the any of the break-ins please contact the San Diego Sheriff’s Department at 858-513-2800.
