HOUSTON—The heartbroken owners of a neighborhood coffee shop were left with thousands of dollars in repairs after thieves ripped off less than $50 in copper overnight.
The owners, Yolanda Black Navarra and Lolita Guererro went to open Sombreros Coffee Shop on Navigation Wednesday, but found they had no electricity.
“We came in this morning and there were no lights and we didn’t know what the problem was and we called CenterPoint and went to the back and found out they (thieves) had cut the wires completely, I guess for copper,” said Navarra.
The owners have only been in business a few months and say this is a major setback.
“It’s hard, it’s very hard because we had a lot of parties planned this weekend for the business, you know, people were coming in planning to have meetings here. We’re virtually out of business now,” said Guererro. “It’s like CenterPoint Energy told us, they (thieves) took $30 worth of copper and it is going to cost us $12,000 to get it fixed.”
Fighting back tears, the owners said their business was trying to bring something nice and new to the community and they wish the vandals would have just asked for a helping hand, rather than destroying valuable property.
“It’s just unfortunate because they do it on a daily basis and they just don’t realize the destruction. I’d rather give them $30 than spend $12,000,” Navarra said.
