nothin Burglaries Test Westville Businesses | New Haven Independent

Burglaries Test Westville Businesses

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Westville Village businesses hit in recent months.

David Sepulveda Photo

Alisa Bowens-Mercado: No more cash to steal.

After a spate of burglaries, Westville Village businesses are on the lookout for people trying to break into their stores and offices, while moving ahead with a revival of the commercial neighborhood.

Westville/West Hills top cop Lt. Rose Dell told neighbors at the most recent community management team meeting that someone broke into CT Braces and New Haven Orthodontics on Whalley Avenue and made off with a bank bag containing deposits from the previous week.

The burglary happened during day time hours and the culprit appeared to get in with something as simple as a screwdriver, she said. It’s just the latest in a series of recent burglaries that have hit the village, which has seen a wave of new store-openings as well.

Surveillance footage shows a tall man prying open the rear door of the business on Jan. 2 wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses, a large black hooded jacket and ripped, faded blue jeans, according to Dell. He walked quickly through the business and made a beeline for a drawer where the bank bag and deposits were stored.

It’s unclear whether its the same man who broke into The Range at Lotta Studios, the Racquet Koop, and Alisa’s House of Salsa in the last few months. Police detectives are on the case. The burglar apparently didn’t wear any gloves and left behind prints, Dell said.

Lotta Resolve

New Westville shop owners as of the fall, clockwise from top left: Melissa Gonzales, Angela Pullo, Della Ragione, Lorri Cavaliere.

Mistina Hanscom said she was on a ski slope in Vermont with her family the day after Christmas when she learned of the break-in at Lotta Studios and co-working space. She and husband Luke were able to see the surveillance footage in real time from their phones.

One of the first purchases we made when we came here was a decent security system,” she said. Hanscom said the police responded quickly but not in time to catch the guy who made off with a bank bag.

And while the surveillance footage was pretty clear — the burglar was bold enough to break in at around 11:30 a.m. — it was captured from above so they couldn’t get a better look at his face. Luckily, the bag he made off with was mostly empty, containing only deposit slips and change.

Hanscom said she was grateful he didn’t make off with the many electronics that are in the building, or any of the tools and material currently being used in the renovation of the space. The first-floor coffee bar in Lotta Studio is undergoing a transformation into Cafe X, which will be run by Stephen Dest and Nate Blair.

Hanscom, who has been running the coffee side of the studio’s business since its inception, longed to get back to focusing on her photography work. Cafe X grew out of the closing of the former Happiness Lab at the Grove when Lotta Studios purchased some of the coffee shop’s equipment.

Hanscom said she believes whoever the burglar is, that person knew that the building was empty the day after Christmas.

There’s usually always somebody in this building even at three and four in the morning,” she said of the co-working space. The day after Christmas nobody was in here.”

No More Cash

The Racquet Koop’s Gaudreau shows the repaired window where a would-be crook tried to get in …

Across the street, Alisa Bowens-Mercado was just wrapping up a dance class when she heard the story of a burglar breaking in and making off with a bank bag. It sounded somewhat similar to what happened to her business twice in October. She said the second time it happened the perpetrator was bold enough to kick in one of her two Whalley Avenue-facing doors.

The first time the burglar got money. The second time the person was out of luck, because Bowens-Mercado no longer has money on the premises.

I’ve noticed a lot more loitering and a lack of police presence in the parking lot,” she said.

Brazen As A Rock

… and the rock used in the attempt.

Chris Gaudreau said a would-be burglar tried to get in through the back door of the Racquet Koop with a very large rock. Again, the attempted crime happened in broad daylight, this time at about noon.

Gaudreau said the rock was used to bust the glass in the door. The burglar would have been able to get in had it not been for the door’s deadbolt that requires a key to lock and unlock.

The would-be burglar used the rock to try to bludgeon open the bolt with the rock and then tried to kick in the door. But he wasn’t quick or quiet enough and someone saw him.

Somebody walked through the alley and said, Hey, what are you doing?” Gaudreau said the guy tried to take off on a bicycle but was ultimately apprehended by police.

Gaudreau has owned the Coop for nearly 28 years; he said it’s his fifth break-in. The last one happened about three years ago. That time someone threw a brick right through one of the front windows. But he’s calm about it.

It happens,” he said. It makes you paranoid and the worst thing is the mess it leaves behind and the cost of repairs. What are you going to do?”

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