BATON ROUGE – The Duplantier Place shopping center on Lee Drive has seen a recent surge in business burglaries leaving local business owners worried with seven separate break-ins reported over an alarming span of just 11 days. Among the affected establishments is Bellyfire Studios, whose owner, David Rollins, reported his business being targeted in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“I mean this, this person (or persons) has done this seven times and is extremely emboldened. The police have been called out each time,” Rollins said. “It’s very distressing to feel like you have to throw up your hands and wonder, ‘Do I have to sit here myself and assert my second amendment’?”
The series of burglaries have mostly happened between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., according to the business owner. That has prompted a call for heightened security measures among the shopping center occupants.
“In my mind, it’s pure negligence on the part of the police department, because they were informed, and this was just totally preventable,” Rollins said.
Bellyfire is a pottery studio that offers nightly classes, workshops, studio memberships, parties, and team building events. The owner says his main priority is to make sure his members continue to feel safe, but this has truly robbed him of much more than tangible items.
“It’s mainly the theft of your own kind of sense of security and the emotional distress that it places on my employees, many of whom are women,” Rollins added.
The alarming frequency of these crimes has left the business community in the area deeply unsettled, no one more so than Amber Elworth, owner of Lighthouse Coffee. According to Elworth, her coffee shop has been robbed on three separate occasions during this recent spree.
“It’s been rough for us,” she remarked, noting that her employees, many of whom are refugees, have been particularly shaken by the incidents. “You know, refugees leave their country because they don’t feel safe. They come to the U.S. because it’s going to be so much better for them and they would feel safe here.” she said.
The break-ins have led Elworth to speak out about the impact these incidents are having on her staff and the cafe’s mission.
“Our mission statement is ‘We exist to serve the world through a Baton Rouge coffee experience.’ We literally mean ‘the world’ by who we employ,” she said.
Elsworth co-founded the coffee shop with a vision to create a global impact by providing employment and a safe haven for refugees from Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Sudan, Iraq, and other conflict zones.
“We came in and told them and they were just so sad. They had the most emotional responses,” she added. “That was the part that upset me the most, by far.”
The first break-in at Lighthouse Coffee was on July 2nd, followed by two more incidents, one just six days later on July 8th. Each time, UWK is told that the intruders targeted cash registers and damaged both properties, leaving a trail of shattered glass and overturned furniture.
Both Rollins and Elsworth tell UWK they aren’t the only businesses targeted. Among the Lee Drive business burglaries were three other burglaries at stores in the same shopping center.
Concerns about the safety of employees and customers alike have spurred urgent calls for increased police presence in the area. Baton Rouge Police told UWK they acknowledge the severity of the situation and have assured business owners they are actively investigating the incidents.
Rollins and Elworth are hopeful that those responsible will soon be arrested and those arrests will restore a sense of security to their establishments.
Meanwhile, community members are urged to contact Crime Stoppers with any information at 344-STOP.
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