Aggravation on menu for restaurateurs across city as pint-size pirates break in, steal booze By: Chris Kitching Posted: 6:09 PM CDT Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

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This article was published 28/03/2024 (554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Elena Grande felt a sense of despair after thieves — possibly children — broke into her family’s River Heights restaurant and stole about a dozen bottles of alcohol this week.

The theft from Mona Lisa Ristorante came amid a rise in burglaries or violence against Winnipeg restaurants after four tough years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and an economic squeeze.

“I feel we’re just getting attacked in every way,” said Grande, operations manager of the Corydon Avenue restaurant. “It makes it harder for places to survive. It makes restaurateurs question if this is the life for them.”

The break-in happened when the restaurant was closed Sunday night or Monday morning.

“It honestly looked like they were taking what they could reach (on shelves),” said Grande, who believes minors were responsible. “First, you feel violated, because someone has been in your space.

“Secondly, you get really upset, because this is a bad economy for everyone. This is the last thing we need.”

The restaurant, which opened 40 years ago, will absorb the cost of the stolen liquor — about $500 — and planned security improvements, which could run into the thousands of dollars.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said no one has been arrested.

Shaun Jeffrey, executive director and CEO of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said he hears about thefts of alcohol every week or two.

There were at least two this week, he said.

“Crime, as a whole, has increased monumentally in our industry,” said Jeffrey. “Restaurants are being targeted, one after another.”

Frustrated restaurateurs said a spike in alcohol thefts is due, in part, to the installation of controlled entrances at Liquor Marts, which began more than four years ago, improving security in response to a rash of violent robberies at outlets across the city.

“(Thieves) are targeting the easiest second option,” said Grande.

Ravi Ramberran, who owns several restaurants, agrees. He and Grande said owners swap stories of teenagers or kids under 12 stealing alcohol at the behest of parents or other older figures for consumption or sale.

“You go from being upset and mad to thinking it’s horrible that this is what things have come to — that kids are being put in this situation,” said Grande.

Ramberran and his staff at the Four Crowns Inn on McPhillips Street have caught minors trying to walk out with booze.

“They break down and say, ‘My parents told me to come grab a case,’” he said. “A lot of the behaviour is getting passed down. They know they are minors, so they can’t get in serious trouble.”

Ramberran has spent tens of thousands of dollars to beef up security — a cost many small businesses cannot afford, he said.

Some struggle with higher insurance premiums after break-ins or vandalism.

“They break down and say, ‘My parents told me to come grab a case.’ A lot of the behaviour is getting passed down. They know they are minors, so they can’t get in serious trouble.”–Ravi Ramberran

When owners absorb extra costs, they try to avoid increasing prices in order to remain competitive, but they sometimes have no choice, said SeoRhin Yoo, a Manitoba-based policy analyst for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Owners said some property crimes go unreported to police, because the victims have little or no faith in the justice system.

After “young kids” stole liquor from Mona Lisa in a break-in last summer, Grande decided not to file a police report.

“You just feel like nothing is going to happen,” she said.

Business owners are frustrated with the so-called “catch-and-release” cycle of repeat property-crime offenders.

Criminals are emboldened when there are no consequences, said Ramberran, who supports harsher sentences. And police are swamped, dealing with violent crime, said Grande, who cited recent incidents against restaurant owners or staff as examples.

Cork & Flame owner Kyriakos Vogiatzakis died after being assaulted outside his Portage Avenue restaurant in January.

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“We’re not in this business to put our lives at risk,” said Grande.

Michalyshen encouraged people to report crimes, because it allows police to identify and act upon trends.

It can also help to link crimes to prolific offenders.

“If they’ve done one (break-in or theft), there’s always a good chance they’ve done many,” he said.

Restaurants aren’t the only businesses facing a surge in crime. After a spike in shoplifting last year, police said thefts shifted from Liquor Marts to retail stores.

A Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries spokesperson said controlled entrances are a “very effective deterrent to would-be thieves.”

The rate of thefts and robberies at Liquor Marts has dropped by more 90 per cent compared with 2018 and 2019, when incidents were on the rise.

Yoo said a CFIB survey last year found 54 per cent of Manitoba small businesses have been directly or indirectly affected by property crime — the highest of any province.

The sector has heard long-term proposals, such as bail reform or efforts to address root causes of crime, from successive NDP and Progressive Conservative governments.

“Small businesses need something in the interim to survive.”–SeoRhin Yoo

Representatives from the restaurant association and CFIB met with Justice Minister Matt Wiebe last week to seek immediate support.

When the budget is revealed Tuesday, they hope the NDP makes good on an election promise to create a security rebate program for small businesses and families.

“Small businesses need something in the interim to survive,” said Yoo.

A new program in B.C. provides as much as $2,000 to help cover vandalism repairs and up to $1,000 for surveillance cameras or other security equipment.

Wiebe did not offer any hints about the budget. He said he will work with business owners and organizations to address crime.

“Our government remains committed to bringing in supports while also working to get tough on the causes of crime so Manitobans can feel safe in their communities,” he said in a statement.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.