Hurricane Beryl causes increase in burglaries in Houston area, including at businesses affected by power outages, HPD says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The average number of burglary reports filed daily by the Houston Police Department more than quadrupled in the days following Hurricane Beryl.

A spokesperson said the department received an average of 10 reports of business burglaries per day in June.

From the Monday Beryl made landfall until the following Saturday, the department received 259 reports, an average of 43 per day.

The day after the storm, Chanon Yong Sanguanchai said staff at Sala Thai Eatery showed up for work to find it had been broken into around 6 a.m.

Sala opened two months ago in the 200 block of Westheimer in Montrose.

Sanguanchai said surrounding businesses lost power because of the storm, but not the restaurant, so their surveillance cameras captured what happened.

A man used a device to break the glass in the front door and entered alongside another man.

“They took a trash can right next to the bar, put all the alcohol in it and took the trash out,” Sanguanchai said.

He said they also stole a safe containing a small amount of cash.

Bayou City Seafood was burglarized less than five miles away Friday morning.

Owner Dale Peters said he prepared the restaurant for the storm by refrigerating all food, taking care of staff and removing expensive computer equipment.

“Your fear is always that people will take advantage of any situation where there is no electricity,” Peters said.

The restaurant, which has been open for more than three decades, was without power Monday because of the storm.

Early Friday morning, Peters said he received a call that the restaurant had been burglarized. He went to the location in Richmond, near the West Loop, and found that three of their doors had been damaged in the crime, totaling about $20,000 in damage.

“They filled two trash cans with alcohol and put them at the end of the center, and I guess the cops ruined that part,” Peters said.

According to Peters, a passing police officer noticed a car with its lights on parked in front of the darkened business around 3 a.m. and took down the license plate number. He believes that’s what prompted the suspects to abandon the trash can filled with alcohol.

Authorities say arrests were subsequently made.

“I think accountability is important,” Peters said. “I’m responsible to my restaurant and my staff. I would like the city to start holding these criminals accountable for their actions. If there’s no accountability, why stop doing it?”

Since there was no electricity at Peters’ restaurant, his cameras couldn’t capture what was happening inside.

Despite the similarities between the circumstances at Sala and Bayou City Seafood, authorities have not said the two events are linked.

The law allows the district attorney’s office to increase penalties for certain crimes following a disaster if they are in some way related to the disaster.

“I think this is a time when we should come together and help each other, but instead they just took advantage of each other and got some benefit out of it, so I think it’s a really good policy to have right now,” Sanguanchai said.

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