Sunnyside restaurant owner wants to move after two break-ins in one week

HOUSTON – Burglars took drastic measures to conceal their identities by cutting power to an entire strip mall before breaking into Butter Funk Kitchen just days before Thanksgiving.

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Surveillance video showed a man in a hoodie flipping breakers and pulling levers behind the building on Scott Street on Nov. 25 around 3:30 a.m. before the lights went out. Then the crooks smashed through the front door of the restaurant.

“They went and cut all the power off, so I couldn’t see what they’d done on the inside,” owner Aaron Johnson said.

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Johnson found that they stole a cash register with a few hundred bucks in it. A neighboring business owner told Houston Police he saw three men taking off from the restaurant after the break-in.

“It’s a pretty popular spot in Sunnyside,” Johnson said of the restaurant he’s owned for three years. “We try to give people great food at a reasonable price.”

He spent $1,500 to fix the glass, he said, which is more than triple what the burglars got away with.

“After three years, no incident has ever happened. Finally, this time of year is, I said, ‘Man, this can’t be’,” Johnson said.

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Another burglar returned to the business early Sunday morning. The power stayed on this time and surveillance video showed him wearing a hoodie, going through cabinets using a tool like a tire iron before getting away with the replacement cash register.

This time, the cash register only had some coins in it, Johnson said.

He reported both incidents to HPD, which confirmed to KPRC 2 an investigation is underway. Johnson hopes video from his business and several others in the same strip mall can help investigators figure out who did it, though investigators don’t yet have all the surveillance.

Johnson is now planning to spend $1,200 to install custom burglar bars on the restaurant windows while he starts looking for a new place to move.

“It’s like I’m spinning my wheels here,” he said. “(I’d like to) relocate to a different area now.”

If you recognize anyone in the surveillance images, call HPD or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.