LOWER EAST SIDE – Two Orchard Street businesses three blocks from each other were burglarized over the weekend, police said.
An employee of Irving Farm Coffee Roasters at 88 Orchard St. discovered the shop’s cash register had been pilfered upon opening the business on July 11 at 8 a.m., according to a police report.
The employee reported $700 missing from the register, police said.
A thief slid through an unlocked side window around 4 a.m., security footage revealed, then went through the register and grabbed the cash before fleeing through the same window, according to authorities.
The suspect, caught on a surveillance camera, is described as a man around 20 years old, standing at 5-foot-8 and weighing 150 pounds, according to the police report.
Meanwhile, an employee opening up The Leadbelly restaurant at 14B Orchard St. the same morning at 11:30 a.m. discovered a front window on the property had been shattered and the cash stations had been tampered with, though no cash had been left in the stations, according to police.
Operators had locked up the restaurant around 12:30 a.m. on July 10 and had reopened on the morning of July 11, police said.
Surveillance footage at The Leadbelly was not immediately available to officers, police said.
It is unknown at this point whether the same suspect targeted both establishments, according to police, and both investigations are ongoing.
Representatives for both Irving Farm Coffee Roasters and The Leadbelly declined to comment.
