At 8:18 on Tuesday morning, Windham Police responded to an attempted burglary at Papa’s Restaurant at the corner of Route 302 and Anglers Road.
Owner and chef Chester Buck had arrived at the restaurant at 8 a.m. to begin prep work in the kitchen before opening the restaurant for lunch. As he entered the premise, Buck immediately noticed something was wrong and called police.
“I saw the money box on the counter, then I saw the broken door and the air conditioner on the floor,” Buck said.
It is believe the incident took place sometime during the night. Evidence suggests that the burglar or burglars first attempted to break into the restaurant through the back door. The burglar(s) cut a hole in a screen door at the back of the restaurant, reached in, lifted the latch and tried to kick in the wood door behind it.
When this proved futile, the burglar(s) knocked an air conditioner out of a side window and crawled through the gap. Once inside, the burglar(s) ripped the door off of a filing cabinet and searched the cash register and the moneybox. However, there was no money to be found.
“There’s never any money here,” said Betty Buck who owns the restaurant with her husband Chester, “But they didn’t know that.”
Betty said she was amazed that the burglar didn’t steal any liquor from Papa’s full bar. This has led her to believe that the burglar(s) were on foot.
“I’m thinking they were walking,” Buck said. “You can’t walk down the street carrying a bunch of alcohol and not look suspicious.”
Windham Police Officer Bill Andrew, who responded to the call with Detective David Bonneau, refused to speculate on the theory, though he did admit it was unusual that no alcohol was stolen.
“It doesn’t change the way we look at (the situation),” Andrew said. “They were definitely going just for the money. What they targeted was the cash register and the filing cabinet.”
In the past, the Bucks, who sometimes spend the night at the restaurant, have left the upstairs light on and a vehicle outside the restaurant to deter burglars. Betty said that this was the first time in a long while they hadn’t left a vehicle at the restaurant overnight.
“We leave a light on upstairs. So they must have known,” Betty said. “With no vehicle, they just assumed we weren’t here I guess.”
The attempted burglary hasn’t stopped the Bucks from keeping regular hours at the restaurant this week. On the day of the burglary, the Bucks opened up Papa’s promptly at 11:30 a.m. for the lunch crowd.
“Nothing stands in the way of the business,” Betty said. “Luckily, they didn’t destroy the place.”
Detective Bonneau will be conducting a follow-up investigation into the incident. The Windham Police have no suspects at this time.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
