Community cafe on Detroit’s east side boards up after string of break-ins

An east-side restaurant has decided to board up after a string of break-ins, including one early Tuesday morning just after the governor’s stay-home order went into effect.

“How do you keep opening your doors and keep having your heart open to helping people when they’re destroying your little piece of the pie?”

Jasmine McMorris opened the Cold Spoon Café on Morang and Duchess with her daughter a few years ago. They opened the cafe to give neighborhood kids delicious treats and a safe place to go.

They had originally planned to stay open through the coronavirus emergency, even ordering extra supplies like eggs, bread and milk for neighbors. But plans recent changed after they experienced their sixth break-in.

“We just keep getting hit and it’s hitting us and tearing us up financially. We just can't continue to replace doors, replace glass, replace cash registers,” McMorris said.

Surveillance video shows the moment thieves smashed their way in. They ran away after seeing the empty cash register.

This latest break-in was the final straw for McMorris and now the windows and doors are boarded up, possibly for good.

“For the most part we don't keep any money in here, but if they would've come in and said, hey, we need $30 I would rather have given them $30 than them come in and break into the place.”

McMorris says the thieves also broke into a few businesses across the street.

The owner of the nearby Prowash laundromat shared other surveillance video showing another break-in just 20 minutes after the cafe was targeted.

Now McMorris has a message for these criminals.

“If you get caught you're facing being locked up, you’re facing charges, you're looking at your future being jeopardized. All for what at the end of the day? You didn't help anybody, you're destroying your own neighborhood.”