KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another string of break-ins targeted small businesses on both sides of the state line in the Kansas City area this weekend.
"Just like many other small business owners right now, waking up to their security camera footage of someone violating our space," Jordan Fox, owner of Garden House Cafe in Kansas City, Kansas, said this weekend.
His cafe, and three other small businesses, along or near Southwest Boulevard, were victims of break-ins this weekend. It's a feeling Crows Coffee owner Zach Moores knows all too well.
"All three of my locations have been broken into several times," he said. "This is probably the 14th or 15th time."
Crows Coffee has locations in Waldo, on the South Plaza and in the Red Bridge Shopping Center. Just last week, all three locations were boarded up because of break-ins that occurred in December.
Moores said he experienced a spike in property crime following the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the years, he estimates the break-ins have cost him about $30,000.
"We just don't know where to direct our frustrations," he said. "These continue to happen."
Both Fox and Moores believe the solution is out of their control.
"I pay my taxes, I do all the things that I'm supposed to do as a small business owner, and I kind of expect our city to solve this problem for us so we can continue to do what we do, which is run small businesses," Moores said.
Fox echoes that, but on the Kansas side.
"I am asking that something happen in our government to care for our small businesses," Fox said. "It has to happen.”
On the Missouri side, KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas says given the state's control of KCPD, the city and state will need to work together.
"In an era where people are saying we have issues with property crime and break-ins; I see a new restaurant or bar that’s posting something, it feels like every two days, or a small business — I want to be able to tell the governor, 'Hey, look, we need your support. We need your investment in Kansas City’s police department, in public safety here, and your collaboration to making sure things can be better here," Lucas said.
He continued, "Frankly, if the state isn’t part of it, we will not be as successful as we need to be."
The city says Lucas will bring up questions regarding property crime across the city on Tuesday at the Board of Police Commissioners meeting.
On Monday, the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department confirmed an investigation into the burglaries continued.
Investigators recovered surveillance video and were working to obtain more.
In addition, KCKPD said it's in contact with KCPD to compare notes, but it's unclear if the KCK burglaries were connected to the ones that occurred in KCMO.
KCKPD is asking business and home owners along Southwest Boulevard and Merriam Lane, between Mission Road and S. 14th Street, to review security camera between 4-7 a.m. Sunday morning.
If they notice anything unusual, they're asked to to call dispatch non-emergency at (913)-596-3000.
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KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.