Break-ins at two Ottawa businesses overnight
Posted Nov 1, 2020 09:49:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Owners of two Ottawa businesses are left picking up the pieces of their broken storefronts after break-ins that happened during overnight hours.
Simply Biscotti on Colonnade Road and Vittoria Trattoria on Rivergate Way reported the incidents on their Facebook pages, Sunday.
Simply Biscotti wrote on its page, “Thank you to whoever decided it would be a great Halloween prank to rob us last night, on top of COVID pressures we were woken up in the middle of the night to a broken door and robbed.”
Domenic Santaguida, owner of Vittoria Trattoria, wrote on his Facebook, “Not only do we need to battle the city and the weather. Now we have people smashing our windows.”
Speaking with OttawaMatters.com, Sunday afternoon, Santaguida said he showed up to his restaurant after he got a call from the surveillance company at about 12:30 a.m.
The company told Santaguida that the person was in the establishment for three minutes and was caught on surveillance before they fled.
Once Santaguida arrived at his restaurant to assess the damage, he was greeted with a smashed window and noticed his restaurant had been ransacked. He hasn’t been able to identify what was taken.
The police were notified and a report was taken.
Santaguida says it will take about a couple thousand dollars to fix the broken window.
“It’s been pretty disheartening these days with everything that’s been going on,” he said. “But the community has been tremendous and people who have supported us over the years have been great.”
The break-in only adds to the existing stresses he and other businesses are facing with COVID-19 restrictions.
“With most businesses, everyone’s in survival mode and everybody’s doing best practices to keep everyone safe,” he said. “This just adds to the frustration of everything that’s going on.”
Santaguida says that Vittoria Trattoria will still be offering takeout services and will keep its patio open, but with modifications to meet the new city standards and to ensure his customers are safe and comfortable.
Ottawa police were contacted for further details but had not provided a response in time for publishing. More details will be reported as they become available.
