TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) – Three separate burglaries are under investigation in Tuscaloosa County. The timing and distance of these crimes gives law enforcement reason to believe there are multiple suspects involved.
These burglaries also come on the heels of multiple burglaries that happened in Trussville and Downtown Birmingham, whose local agencies have yet to arrest the person or persons involved.
Around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, Mi Pueblito and a Subway in Fosters were burglarized. Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Sgt. Josh Hastings said the businesses sit across from each other on Holley Springs Road.
Both the family-owned restaurant and the sandwich shop are located off Interstate 20/59 in Fosters, and they are less than a mile down the road off of exit 62.
“I can tell you that there’s more than one person involved,” Hastings said.
El Pueblito and Subway are in close proximity of each other, and Hastings says the burglaries happened pretty quickly.
The front doors to both establishments were smashed open, and money was stolen from inside.
“We’re just trying to calm down,” Mi Pueblito’s owner Frank Matias said.
Matias opened the store located next to the Food World grocery store five years ago. Wednesday was the first time his store was burglarized.
“People put their hearts and souls and life into these establishments,” Hastings said. when you have someone who wants to break in, that affects their life, their business and the people that work there as well.”
As of Wednesday evening, no arrests have been made. The restaurant owner hopes someone can be held accountable.
“We’re just trying to figure out what happened,” Matias said. “We’re just trying to see what the police can do to figure out who did this.”
10 miles up the interstate from where the two restaurants in Fosters were burglarized, the fast food chain, Slim Chickens, was also hit.
“A delivery driver discovered the window broken at 6 a.m.,” Tuscaloosa City Police spokesperson Stephanie Taylor said.
Based on information TPD has gathered, they believe the crime happened around 3 a.m.
“We went and cleared the building and discovered damaged registers and cash taken,” Taylor said.
TCSO has obtained multiple leads but encourages anyone with information to come forward.
As the city and county work to find those responsible, there are some similarities to the burglaries in Jefferson County. All the targets, except for a nail salon in Trussville, were restaurants.
Businesses in Trussville were burglarized either in the early morning hours Saturday, April 6, or late in the evening that Friday.
Three days later, two restaurants in downtown Birmingham were also burglarized. The front doors to Mooyah Burger and Encore Rouge were broken open, and money was stolen.
TCSO does not have any evidence that connects the burglaries in Trussville, Downtown Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, but they said they won’t rule out the possibility.
“When you get a string of these events happen in a short period of time you’d think it’d be the same group,” Hastings said. “At this point we have nothing to say it is, whether it’s the same individuals or not, you have to look at the possibility that they are connected.”
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