Cafe owner left feeling 'violated' by break-in

A cafe owner has been left the counting the costs after burglars smashed their way into the premises just six weeks after it opened.

Grinder Coffee Co in Sunderland was broken into on Saturday afternoon, according to owner Riki Tsang.

"They rifled through all of our drawers, smashed things along the way," he said. "It was a real shock."

Northumbria Police said it was investigating.

It had been just a few weeks since the cafe reopened after moving into larger premises on New Durham Road, said Mr Tsang.

The original shop had been running on the same road since 2019.

The break-in happened at about 17:30 GMT on Saturday, said Mr Tsang, just under two hours after the shop had closed for the day.

He said it had been a "breach of privacy".

"It just feels quite violating," he said.

Mr Tsang said the burglars had only been able to get away with "relatively little goods" but the mess they had caused resulted in about £1,000 worth of repairs.

"They don't realise the impact that it has," he said.

He said the team had been "inundated" with positive messages after posting about the break-in on social media.

The cafe has since been fitted out with extra security measures.

"Thankfully we were able to get back up and running very quickly," Mr Tsang said.

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