HYDE PARK — The owners of Pearle Vision and Nicky’s Chinese Food in Kimbark Plaza are reeling after a burglar broke into both stores early Monday morning.
Around 12:40 a.m. Monday, a man broke into the two storefronts on the western edge of Kimbark Plaza, 1200 E. 53rd St., taking cash from Nicky’s and strangely leaving Pearle Vision untouched beyond the smashed in front door.
“I have it on camera, nothing was stolen,” said Ami Patel, the optometrist and owner of Pearle Vision. “Frames are stolen all the time, it’s a hot black market item, but he didn’t even look at the boards [of frames].”
She said the burglar can be seen on surveillance video looking around in the back rooms and then leaving empty handed.
Patel said she found out the hard way Monday morning that her alarm didn’t work.
“I got really lucky because anyone could have walked in for nine-and-a-half hours and taken whatever they wanted,” Patel said.
She said a customer called her at 8:30 a.m. to tell her the door was smashed in and there was a police officer standing watch over the store.
“That nighttime officer is who I really want to thank because he was out in the cold for nine hours,” Patel said.
She said she has since fixed the alarm system.
She said she’s still perplexed as to why nothing was taken by the man, who could be seen in surveillance photos as a black man with a goatee in his late 40s to early 50s wearing a fur-trimmed black hat and a black puffy coat with white fingerless gloves holding a metal bar.
The owner of Nicky’s didn’t luck out so well and said cash was stolen from the restaurant, but otherwise nothing was taken.
The owner, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution from the burglar, said he came in the morning and found the man’s metal baton he used to smash in the front door still on the front counter.
He said his alarm also didn’t go off, but was unsure why.
Officers responded to the break-ins by 12:55 a.m., according to police.
No one is currently in custody for the burglaries.
The store owners declined to release photos or videos of the man.
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