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SALINA, Sevier County — Kathryn Edwards, who has been waiting tables at Mom's Café for 31 years, will tell you why this is a special place.
"We're a landmark. We have been here for years and years and years,” Edwards said. “Our food is all homemade.”
But Saturday morning when employees arrived at Mom’s Café to start cooking breakfast, they found the back door was shattered.
“They broke it with a crowbar and they crawled through where they broke it,” Edwards said. “They came in around the salad bar and straight up to the register. They knew what they were doing.”
As police arrived to investigate, they found this wasn't the only stop the burglar made in town.
"While police were processing the scene at Mom's Café, we get a call that the laundromat down the street has also been broken into,” said Salina Police Chief Greg Harwood.
A few minutes later, police got another call from the nearby Soda Barn that it had also been broken into.
"So far it appears it is one person and he hit all three,” Hardwood said.
In Salina, business burglaries are rare and the burglar probably didn't count on what Mom's Café had waiting for him.
“It was on the video, and we have very good videos,” Edwards said.
A high-quality video surveillance system that literally caught the burglar red-handed. It even gave police a close up of his face. The images shared through social media are helping detectives in their investigation.
"We are getting some leads and following up on those right now,” Hardwood said.
And while people were back to enjoying their hometown food at Mom's this afternoon and talking about what happened, the waitresses hope other would-be criminals think twice before breaking into their café.
“It was invading our privacy, and we are all just so angry," Edwards said. "We told the cops when you catch him, let us have him, and they laughed."
Because as good as the food is at Mom's Café, the staff is anxious to take a bite out of crime.
We have all worked here for years,” Edward said. “This is like our second home so it is personal and it makes me angry but they will catch him. They'll get him.”
Contributing: Xoel Cardenas
