'More damage than dollars taken' says staff of coffee stand targeted in overnight break-ins

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. - Pierce County detectives are looking into a string of break-ins of a popular drive-thru coffee stand chain. 

Cafe Elite had five of its locations broken into back-to-back on Jan 21. Reports say the same individuals showed up at their Spanaway location around 12:15 a.m. One of them allegedly acted as a lookout while the other broke the lockbox key, opened up shop, made his way to the cash register and then busted the safe. 

Chief Operating Officer Tim Irey estimates the damages to be about $10,000 dollars, a loss he says as a business they’ll just have to cover – again.

"If you make an insurance claim, or you make one too many insurance claims, you run the risk of being dropped on your insurance," Irey said.

He says they feel "violated" every time this happens. The worst part is this impacts baristas the most as it's their sense of safety they can never get back.

"Each time something like this happens, it chips away at humanity," Irey said. "It's getting harder and harder and harder to do business. There's really more damage done than there are dollars taken."

Irey says for employee safety they've scaled back hours during the winter but the sense of, insecurity lingers.

"If they're willing to do it at night, at what point are they going to be willing to do it not at night?" Irey questioned.

 Gabrielle Nguyen, 23, is one of their 160 baristas at one of their 22 locations around the region. She's been there about a year now.  

"It's been fun," Nguyen said. For the most part it's regular customers with a few travelers sprinkled through as her location runs through a major highway. 

She says she enjoys her job. She closed up shop Saturday just hours before thieves pulled up.

"It is kind of just a scary situation," Nguyen said. She says fortunately, she nor any or her coworkers were here when it happened. 

Surveillance videos Irey shared with FOX 13 show a man wearing a distinct blue jacket and what seems to be torn jeans standing over their Spanaway location. A few hours later in Tacoma, seemingly the same person walks up to another stand with a saw in hand.

"He's very nonchalant," Irey said. "I'm just gonna walk up and I'm just gonna get in when I get in and, and take what I want." 

The man returns with a crowbar in hand, he busts in and heads for the safe. Its unclear what was taken and how much. Irey says they've taken a lot of measures including surveillance and making sure establishments are well lit to deter these types of crimes.

"The only way to completely prevent it is to not have any cash in the building and that becomes problematic for all those customers who pay in cash," Irey says. Overall, he points out cash sales are decreasing as less people carry cash but it's still an option. 

"The only way to stop it is for those people to be caught," Irey said.

If you recognize the people or cars involved in this case, you're urged to call Pierce County detectives.