A Sunshine business owner and his family have been left shaken and confused after their restaurant was allegedly burgled and cash stolen on August 6.
Dum Matka restaurant owner Deepak Kumar Gadde, who runs the business on City Place with his wife, said he felt shattered when he realised what had happened and saw the damage.
“My missus is still in a bit of stress. She’s avoiding talking about it….every time I try to speak to her about it she’s crying,” Mr Kumar Gadde said.
“We’re so small I don’t know what the thief thought he could find in it.”
While Mr Kumar Gadde doesn’t know why his business was targeted, he said burglaries and robberies have increased overall in the area.
“It’s happened to other businesses multiple times,” he said.
He said he had experienced incidents of people entering the restaurant and demonstrating antisocial behaviour over the past month too.
“On the odd day, people used to come in and push their limits for a free meal or a free drink. If they don’t get what they want they just abuse us and go,” he said.
“We had a couple of those people come in the past four weeks, try to push for it. When we said ‘no’ then it sounded like they got offended. A couple of warnings, a couple of verbal abuse situations. Besides that no one was physically hurt.
“This was the first time we had an instance where there was property damage and a theft.”
Mr Kumar Gadde said he was grateful for the community’s support since the burglary, with regulars coming to dine in the restaurant more often and a long-time customer even volunteering to start a fundraiser to cover the damage costs.
“People with deep pockets, it might not be an issue for them, but when you’re so small you’re so vulnerable,” Mr Kumar Gadde said.
A 41-year-old Tarneit man was arrested on August 11 and charged with burglary and theft. He was bailed to appear at Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on November 5.
