Thieves break into Denver restaurant, taking cash and cards

DENVER (KDVR) – On Monday morning, a restaurant in Denver was broken into and robbed.

Ryan Oakes owns The Brutal Poodle, a gastropub inspired by punk rock and heavy metal. Oakes said it was just another Monday when his business partner opened its doors.

“My business partner opened like he normally does on Mondays and came in the front door, and the back door was actually open, so he was curious if maybe we had a fake closing last night,” Oakes said.

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It was then that he realized something was wrong.

“He saw that the registry had been tampered with and basically everything was on the floor,” Oakes said.

Oakes said there wasn’t much on the record, but the safe in his office was a different story.

“They broke into our safe and pretty much destroyed us,” he said.

They stole about $7,000 in cash and several credit cards, which were being kept safe for customers who had left them behind.

They checked the cameras, which portrayed exactly what happened.

“A couple stopped in the alley and parked on a motorcycle and like a rocket in the groin. They jumped the fence and used a crowbar to break down the back door,” Oakes said.

Theft at The Brutal Poodle caught on camera

Once inside, security cameras captured the suspect walking through the restaurant. He is shown wearing a ski mask and leather leg warmers. Once he breaks into the cash register and office, he is caught on video jumping the fence and exchanging words with the person on the motorcycle before the two speed off.

Timestamps show this happened around 4 am. Since then, Oakes said the community has rallied around him and Brutal Poodle.

“It’s definitely cool. So cool. It’s not something we’ve ever asked for like this. We never will. We are always the ones who give,” Oakes said.

A friend of his, Rob Denver, set up a GoFundMe to help cover the loss.

“I called him and asked if he would be okay with me creating a GoFundMe,” Denver said. “And, of course, you know, he’s not the quickest to accept help. And I told him it was going to happen one way or another. So I said I can block you from all the posts so you don’t see it, or I can just go ahead and do it.”

In just a few hours, they were more than halfway to their goal.

“I told them… you know, you guys are just loved by the community and everything that you’re doing, clearly, people have responded, which is amazing,” Denver said.

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In the meantime, Oakes said they will still be available to serve their customers.

“We don’t know how to really recover or approach this. So, yeah, just working day-to-day, we’re just – we’ll figure it out, man. We always do. We’ll find out,” Oakes said.

Oakes said he is asking those who think they may have left their credit cards at his restaurant in the last three weeks to cancel their cards if they have been compromised.

This is still an active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Denver Police Department.

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