Burglars broke into Hamburger Mary’s — located at 4123 Cedar Springs, on the corner of Cedar Springs Road and Knight Street — in the early morning hours today (Saturday, May 3), making off with two safes full of cash, according to owners Don Smith and Romeo Vale and leaving thousands of dollars of damage in their wake.
Smith and Vale said that sometime between 4 and 9 a.m., burglars broke out a window on the Knight Street side of the building, near the restaurant’s front door. They then broke through the locked office door to get to the safes. The owners said the burglars apparently had a pry bar that they used first to try and gain entrance to the office. But when that didn’t work, they kicked the door in, leaving shoe prints on the door.
Burglars also damaged a cash register in the restaurant, and cash in the two safes and the cost of damages to the building and the cash register totals about $10,000 or more in losses, Smith and Vale said.
Smith and Vale said they have been reaching out all day to nearby businesses who were open during the hours between 4 and 9 a.m. or that have security cameras facing Hamburger Mary’s to see if anyone saw anything or if any of the security cameras may have caught the break-in on video.
Smith and Vale said there is a Bank of America location across Knight Street from the restaurant, and cameras there may have caught the break-in, but they have been unable to contact anyone there because the bank is closed. They also said that they have asked management at the 4123 Apartments, the building in which Hamburger Mary’s is located, to see if security cameras or patrols had seen anything.
“The apartment management said there were no reports from their security officers, and they are investigating now to see why no one saw anything during or after the break-in and why no reports were filed,” Smith said.
Smith and Vale said they first contacted Dallas Police at about 9:30 a.m. to report the break-in, but, as of 4 p.m., no one from DPD had responded, they said. “We’ve called three times, and the last time they told us this is one of the lowest-priority calls.”
Lee Daugherty, the owner of Alexandre’s which is located on the other side of Cedar Springs in the 4000 block, told a Dallas Voice staff member today that while he doesn’t know of any such attacks in the area “since New Year’s Day of last year,” there were in the past several instances of such break-ins.
“If it’s the old crew, they hit holiday weekends, but usually on Monday, to get the deposit,” Daugherty said. “Could be different [perpetrators], especially since they didn’t pop the door.
“This will be the first time the same location has been hit twice, though, if it is the same crew,” the bar owner and community activist noted.
Smith and Vale, who purchased the restaurant earlier this year, said the previous owners of Hamburger Mary’s told them someone had broken into the business “during the COVID pandemic, so in 2020 or early 2021” and had stolen safes then, too.
— Tammye Nash