NewsRegionBaltimore City

Actions

Popular Baltimore cafe broken into for the second time in under 2 months

Popular Baltimore cafe broken into for the second time in under 2 months
Posted

BALTIMORE — One World Cafe in Baltimore was broken into early Wednesday morning.

“You’re taking away our fun, our time to be with the community, to serve the community," said Co-Owner Cindy Novak, sending a message to the people who stole from her business.

Around 4 a.m. Wednesday, she got an alert that the cafe's alarms were going off.

She was met with police and a broken glass door.

One World Cafe

“What they did is they pulled the cash drawer which sits underneath the monitor itself," she said, “They went down the side of the bar so, all my glasses broke, bottles broke so I don’t have any martini glasses right now.”

Damages total at least $3,000 plus wages for the employees that couldn’t come in to work on Wednesday.

“When somebody does something like this it hurts. It doesn’t make you mad, it hurts. Because your whole heart and soul is poured into a business to try to make it work.”

It's a double whammy for the business as it was just broken into on August 27.

One World Cafe

A former business owner in the area, Ted VanPelt, experienced the same issue.

“They actually took my back door off its hinges, came in went straight to my register and took the money out," VanPelt said. “I think somebody needs to have more eyes on the area.”

While Novak is worried it might happen again, she's not moving.

“Wedding anniversaries are here, children being born, christenings, you name it we’ve celebrated it all with the community itself. It’s kind of hard to leave this community. We love Baltimore.”

Baltimore loves them back.

While WMAR-2 News was at the cafe, one customer gave Novak $100 to help make up for some of the staff's lost wages from the break-in.

Another customer started a GoFundMe to support the business.

Baltimore police are investigating the burglary.

Email the WMAR-2 Newsroom if you have info, photos or videos to share.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.