Katie Moore / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- Maple Street is one of the New Orleans’ up-and-coming shopping districts. But with that increase in business often comes increased attention, both from customers and criminals.
Businesses in the area are seeing a bump in burglaries, and in at least one case, not just for cash.
At the Maple Street Book Shops Monday, the owner added something new to the used book shop: brand new burglar bars.
“This is the third time in four weeks that we've had problems,” said Donna Allen, owner of the shops.
Sunday morning, workers found the window on the used book shop busted out, the safe pried open, missing cash, a worker's camera and five rare books. The burglar also broke through a wall to get into the new book shop next door to steal cash from the register.
“That the books were taken, that's very upsetting,” Allen said.
The burglar took five rare books off of a generic-looking shelf positioned behind the register. They were all first editions of well known titles, including Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, two novels by Andrew Vachss, and two of New Orleans classic Confederacy of Dunces.
“We keep those behind the counter. But no, you have to know what you're looking for to realize that those are first editions,” Allen said.
“Let's call the game for real. A crack head is not going to steal Confederacy of Dunces. That doesn't feed his need,” said NOPD Sgt. Marc Amos.
He heads the property crimes unit in the Second police district, which includes Maple Street. According to Amos, the area has seen a spike in burglaries since April of last year. The Book Shop is the third in 2011.
“Other than proximity, they share that basic nexus. On top of that it's hard to say,” Amos said about whether there’s any connection between them.
Allen said this is the second time the book shops have been burglarized. The first was three weeks ago, when she said someone broke in through a window and took cash from the register.
“We had no good sign that there was a break in or entry to this business. We neglected to call that a lost or stolen property and we investigated that,” Amos said.
The book shop isn't the only business to have a repeat burglar in recent weeks. A new boutique called "Lola" just opened near the intersection of South Carrollton and Hampson.
“They busted through our side window, tripped all the alarms and all the alarms and everything,” said store manager Torya Torrey about their break-in a month ago.
Surveillance video of the burglary shows a middle-aged white or Hispanic man with a balding patch on the back of his head, wearing a handkerchief over his nose and mouth trying to open the register.
When the alarm sounded, he left.
“Whoever this is came back about an hour later through the same window, and took the cash register, all the cash, the same thing,” Torrey said.
The burglaries have the NOPD warning business owners to be extra vigilant, including paying attention to who's shopping.
If you have any information on the burglaries, call the NOPD's second district at (504) 658-6020 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
