Rash of break-ins continue to plague New Orleans business owners

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A rash of burglaries along Freret Street left around a dozen uptown businesses feeling frustrated and violated.

“It was a very uneasy feeling of violation for sure,” co-owner of Windowsill Pies Marielle Dupré said.

Dupré said at first glance everything seemed normal, she thought someone just left the door open when she came in last Wednesday morning.

“I came around into the kitchen and saw the safe had crowbar marks on it all the cash was missing from the drawer and we do leave the drawer open, thankfully, so just the coins were taken and nothing was broken but all of our food delivery tablets were taken our speakers for the music system some beer and wine of course,” Dupré said.

As they tried to shake it off, Dupré says she noticed her neighbor Mojo Coffee talking to the police Saturday morning.

“We thought ‘oh my God, this cannot be happening again’ they were just comforting us last week they brought me some rolls of coins last week because we had no coins and now we’re like what can we do for you, it’s terrible,” Dupré said.

Police have not said if these break-ins are connected, but Friday night at Mojo’s sounds similar.

“Someone broke open the door took the entire cash register, just took the whole thing out, and left within a minute or two, but it was interesting they didn’t take the other cash register because we have two so they only got a hundred bucks or something,” an employee said.

Those who own businesses and work in the area say it’s been happening fairly often over the past month up and down this stretch of Freret. Before Mojo’s, Dat Dog was also hit.

“They just took two empty cash drawers and also broke the door in a stupid way so I don’t think they are good at what they are doing,” a manager said.

NOPD provided video of an October 4 break-in, just after 2 in the morning at High Hat Cafe. You see a hooded man with a mustache, possibly a full beard, who rode in on a bike, trying to pry open the register before taking whole thing and a tablet.

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The Freret neighborhood has seen a sharp rise in business burglaries. City data shows they’re up 200%.

Earlier this month we showed you similar break-ins across Uptown and into Mid-City, but overall, business burglaries are down in the City of New Orleans to around 360 from over 500 this time last year.

Some on Freret aren’t breathing much easier, just thanking their lucky stars.

“No one has been hurt that I know of so that’s really a positive thing,” Dupré said.

“As long as no one was here and no one got hurt like it’s just money and there’s insurance,” an employee at Mojo said.

The businesses we spoke to said NOPD patrols have increased in the area, despite the burglaries persisting.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Second District Detectives or leave an anonymous tip with Crimestoppers.

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