The Willow Glen Resident The Garden Theatre Burger King is victimized by burglary Police find no sign of forced entry By Cecily Barnes During the dark hours after Lincoln Avenue shut down Tuesday Feb. 2, a thief entered the Garden Theater's Burger King and hacked away at the restaurant's safe. When the restaurant's owner, John Haile, came to work at 8 a.m. the next morning and saw the butchered strongbox, he immediately called police. "The safe is really damaged," Haile said. "And I'm really shocked because this could happen again." Haile would not reveal the amount of money that was taken, but he suggested that the crooks managed to access only the change portion of the safe. Overall Haile seems less concerned about the money than the painstaking efforts made to crack the safe. "They used a lot of time to do what they wanted, and they used a lot of welding tools," Haile said. "Maybe somebody let them in. I don't know." According to San Jose Police Department spokesman Louis Quezada, there were no signs of forced entry into either the Garden Theater or Burger King. "It means that either someone had the key, someone could have stayed inside the building or it could mean it was an inside job," Quezada said. "We don't see a lot of burglaries where safes are opened." White Dove Cafe co-owner Jeff Michel says that the robbery definitely raises some concerns. "I personally locked the atrium that night and double-checked the doors, so it does bring a bit of alarm," Michel said. "Knock on wood, we haven't had anything happen. But we also have our own security system throughout the entire restaurant with motion sensors." Quezada says police investigators will be looking into the matter and interviewing people. "We're hoping that witnesses or persons who may have seen suspicious persons in the area will come forward with information we need to identify the suspect or suspects," he said. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, February 10, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.