By Brendan Rees
A pair of heartless thieves have been caught on camera stealing cases of beer from a Berwick restaurant.
The devastated owner of Mexican House Ben Dabaco said the intruders, who stole two cases of Corona beer, had left a damage bill worth about $500 after smashing their way into his Clyde Road business on Saturday night, 13 June.
According to Mr Dabaco, the thieves – one who appeared to be wearing a mask – struck sometime between 10pm and 12.30am.
He said the intruders smashed the lock of a side timber gate before forcing open a store room door and stealing the beer worth $100.
The business’s CCTV cameras captured the males carrying out the cases of beer, which had been handed to police.
Mr Dabaco said the intruders spent no longer than two minutes inside the store room before running off towards the back of Coles.
“They had their torches on their phones, it looked like one of them was on the phone at one stage,” he said.
Mr Dabaco said he had been left gutted as his business had already been impacted by the pandemic shutdown.
“It’s just really disappointing, we’re struggling so hard in the last two months to try and keep our doors open,” he said.
“It’s also the $500 that we can’t afford to fix that we’ve had to fix.”
Mr Dabaco said he didn’t realise the break-in had occurred until 1.30pm the next day when staff arrived to open the business due to issues with the alarm system at the time.
“Unfortunately our alarm wasn’t on that night for whatever reason.”
He said footage wasn’t clear enough to provide a description of the males.
Victoria Police have been contacted for comment.
