Houston-area restaurants recently broken into are within 3 miles of each other, HPD says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Police say they're looking into the possible connection in a string of restaurant break-ins this week.

Three restaurants in The Heights and one in Rice Military were broken into over a three-day period. All are located within a three-mile radius of each other.

On Tuesday at about 3:40 a.m., police say someone smashed through a glass door at Best Regards on West 11th Street.

On Wednesday at about 4:40 a.m., they said someone broke a window at a restaurant on Washington Avenue near Reinerman. That same morning, police say someone broke a window at the Domino's on West 18th Street.

The latest break-in happened just after 2 a.m. Thursday at Preslee's on West 19th Street.

Surveillance video shows a silver Infiniti pulling into the parking lot. Two people with covered faces walk around the restaurant before smashing through a glass door in the back. Cameras capture them inside the restaurant, holding some sort of sack and trying to go undetected.

"They were actually squatted down, trying to sneak through the restaurant," Preslee's operations manager Ryan Manos said.

Once the alarm sounds, the burglars take off running empty-handed.

It's the second time Preslee's has been broken into this month. On Jan. 14, Manos said someone broke in and stole bottles of liquor.

"We started locking our liquor bottles up," he said.

Eyewitness News also reported on the restaurant in 2022, when someone broke in and stole a safe with $5,000 inside.

"It's rough because we're trying to operate a restaurant, which is hard to do anyways, with food costs and all that other stuff, and now we have to continually replace items," Manos said.

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