3 popular hangouts, limited by NC COVID rules, now dealing with weekend break-ins
Two breweries and an entertainment venue in Lower South End suffered break-ins Sunday morning. The companies hit were Queen Park Social, Protagonist Beer and the Sugar Creek Brewing Company.
Sugar Creek Brewing Company posted on Instagram that its cash registers were smashed and the taproom was vandalized.
”If COVID hasn’t made times hard enough for the restaurant and bar industry, last night Sugar Creek, Queen Park Social and Protagonist were (burglarized),” the business stated.
Michael Salzarulo, co-founder of Protagonist Beer, told The Charlotte Observer an employee discovered the break-in around 9 a.m. Video surveillance shows a man throwing a large rock through a side window several times before breaking the glass, Salzarulo said. The suspect was inside for just 90 seconds and appeared to be looking for cash, which is not kept in the registers, he said.
“We know our pizza and beer is good but breaking our windows to get it is unnecessary,” Protagonist Beer wrote on Instagram.
CMPD confirmed that the three businesses on Yancey Road and Southside Drive suffered break-ins over the weekend. The burglaries took place in a neighborhood just east of South Tryon Street and were reported to police between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday morning.
Salzarulo said the incident appears to have taken place around 5:30 a.m. and the suspect appears to have started at Queen Park Social before moving to Protagonist Brewing then Sugar Creek Brewing.
With a stolen “DoorDash tablet” and the broken glass, he estimated about $2,000 in damages, approximately how much the business makes in sales on a Monday, he said.
However, every dime goes a long way right now, Salzarulo said, especially with North Carolina coronavirus restrictions limiting the business’s capacity and hours. He added that he is grateful that no employees were present the suspect broke in.
“We’re surviving,” he said. “That’s the name of the game right now: survive until we can open up our doors.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 12:11 PM.
