Agile burglars squeeze their way into several businesses — Half Moon Bay, CA

One or more agile burglars have been climbing up trees, over fences and through tiny windows in a spree of break-ins at businesses in downtown Half Moon Bay.

At least eight businesses spread along the commercial strip have been burglarized in a similar fashion in recent days. In almost all the break-ins, the burglars apparently entered through unsecured windows, some of which would have been extremely difficult to access.

At the Main Street Grill on Saturday, the burglars evidently squeezed through a foot-wide space behind a walk-in freezer to open a small window leading to the café kitchen.

“It must’ve been a really small guy to do that,” said café owner Bill Gevas. “For me, this is just aggravating … I really don’t have anything valuable in here.”

Inside the restaurant, the thieves found little to steal, taking the quarters from the cash register and some money left in a tip jar - about $35 total. Before exiting, they replaced a row of spices they knocked over when they climbed inside.

The Paper Crane and the Gourmet Appliance Company also reported being burglarized on the same night. Both stores share the same building but are separated by a partition. The thieves stole $200 from the Paper Crane and an entire floor safe from the Gourmet Appliance. The safe was empty.

Further down Main Street, the shop Have to Have It reported someone had broken inside through an unlocked window to steal $150. Employees at the Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel believe someone may have tried to sneak inside their store on the same night by peeling open the sheet metal outside the building.

One week earlier across downtown, the burglars went inside a second-story window at Ink Spell Books by climbing up a bottlebrush tree, according to a nearby business owner. Once in the bookstore, the intruders had free rein to search both the bookstore and the next-door La Di Da Café. The two stores are linked by a small window-sized opening, which the burglars were evidently able to get through. The two stores together lost about $450.

The thieves were clearly after money, said La Di Da owner Luz Desalesa, pointing out they could have also taken food, appliances or even a laptop computer from the café.

The only item stolen besides money was an MP3 player that the thieves took when they broke inside the offices of Half Moon Bay Chiropractic earlier this month. That business also lost $140 in the incident.

http://www.hmbreview.com/news/nimble-burglars-break-inside-downtown-shops/article_01332f3c-e309-11e0-9401-001cc4c03286.html