Co-owner of Asian fusion restaurants in London, Ont., says someone's targeting them
Rebecca Zandbergen | CBC News | Posted: July 7, 2022 2:34 PM | Last Updated: July 7, 2022
Julia Hou of Mr. and Mrs. Bao isn't ruling out the break-ins are racially motivated
Mr. and Mrs. Bao co-owner Julia Hou is frustrated police aren't doing more to find the person breaking into her London, Ont.-based restaurants.
Hou believes a single person who is becoming increasingly violent has been targeting two locations — one on Wharncliffe Road North and another one still under construction on Richmond Street — since late last month.
"I understand that the police are very busy," said Hou, 27, who along with her partner has opened five separate restaurants in three cities since 2020.
"The people that are getting away with this crime seem to think that they can continue to get away with it, then the issue will only be exacerbated," said Hou, an Ivey Business School student at Western University. "It's important for the police to step up and take an active attitude toward this issue."
Video footage captured a culprit on four separate occasions over eight days, smashing doors and windows and trying to open a cash box at both Mr. and Mrs. Bao locations.
"From looking at the footage, it seems to be the same person," said Hou. "Not only is it the same person, he's very focused and goes right for the thing that he's after."
London police are investigating the break-ins and said the case on Wharncliffe Road North has been assigned to members of the street crime unit.
If someone is unhappy with a police response, they should contact The Professional Standards Branch (PSB), which deals with these kinds of complaints, said Const. Sandasha Bough.
Hou has spent about $10,000 since late last month dealing with the fallout of the break-ins, replacing doors, windows, and locks and buying new iPads after the old ones were taken.
"And then we can't operate because it's not a safe environment for our employees and then there's a loss of revenue," said Hou.
And that's not all.
"They're also being highly disrespectful. We found feces in the storage room. They're playing pranks on us. They're flooding our basement," said Hou.
She's now beefing up security and has decided her restaurants will no longer take cash.
Racially motivated?
The person must have taken a uniform, too, said Hou, because her team recently spotted a man wearing a Mr. and Mrs. Bao uniform on Dundas Street.
"They obviously weren't our staff," said Hou. "We had told the police about it. We took a video of the guy and we sent it to the police. The police didn't even show up. And the guy eventually left."
Hou has other concerns too.
"A while back, we noticed that certain Asian restaurants were being targeted in the GTA [Greater Toronto] area, and we had hope that that doesn't happen to us," she said.
"But from the looks of things, we definitely can't rule that out."