SPOKANE, Wash. – In less than 24 hours, two restaurants just feet apart in Spokane’s Garland District were targeted by thieves during a busy restaurant week. One burglary was a failure, one was not.
“Nothing is ever easy,” Tom Ritchie, Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle owner, said.
If you know the Garland District’s infamous Milk Bottle, which has stood at Post and Garland for over two decades, you know it is almost always open on Wednesdays. But this Wednesday, ‘CLOSED TODAY’ signs were taped to the diner’s doors.
“It’s tough to be here in this position being shut down for a day,” Ritchie said.
Two thieves broke in late Tuesday night, busting the front door and window, with their identities hidden beneath masks, hoods and hats. Ritchie has filed a police report with the Spokane Police Department.
“I think it’s very unheard of, especially this place, everybody loves the Milk Bottle,” he said.
The thieves worked on the system to cut the Milk Bottle’s power so the security cameras inside wouldn’t catch them getting away with Ritchie’s ATM and safe, which was full of thousands of dollars in cash.
“We’ve never had any problems in probably 25 years with the ATM,” Ritchie said. “It’s not something anybody wants to walk into, that’s for sure.”
Ritchie was the first to scope out the damage inside his family’s business and he quickly realized, because the power was cut, the physical dollars stolen became only one of the headaches he and his team had to deal with.
Their money makers literally melted and wasted away.
“Now the ice cream is gone, and every tub is 40 bucks and there’s 30 tubs there, another 20 in the freezer. What about the product? You know, ground beef is gone, milk, I have to redo everything on top of that, so we’re talking thousands there,” Ritchie said.
Instead of a busy day serving long-time and new patrons during restaurant week, Wednesday marked a day full of damage repair and phone calls with insurance agents inside the Milk Bottle; Ritchie and his team working hard to ensure their legacy restaurant recovers after Tuesday night’s burglary.
And just down the street, the owner of Little Noodle is on high alert after falling victim to an attempted burglary just hours before, sometime early Tuesday morning.
“Then we found out this morning about the Milk Bottle, and it’s just heartbreaking in our little district here,” Kadra Evans, Little Noodle owner, said.
The Garland District, full of character and life, lost one key player this Wednesday. But Ritchie hopes the fans of the Milk Bottle will be back soon.
“I’m sure they’ll be back, but it still hits home, it hurts, because they wanted to come here today,” he said.
Ritchie is optimistic Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle will re-open Thursday.
