Neighborhood steps into help Brooklyn restaurant repeatedly vandalized, robbed

By Jim Dolan

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    NEW YORK (WABC) — A family-owned Venezuelan restaurant in Brooklyn, who through COVID helped so many in need, is now the victim of a crime. It has been vandalized and robbed repeatedly in the past two weeks.

The dream of owning a restaurant has not always turned out quite the way Ivo Diaz imagined – Casa Ora in East Williamsburg had all the same issues during COVID that all restaurants had – but people are back inside and out now. There are still, however, plenty of issues.

Surveillance video shows the same person at the restaurant’s side door, appearing to break in. Each night, food was missing from the restaurant, and then on Wednesday, someone broke the front glass of the restaurant and took cash and liquor from the bar.

Diaz filed a police report.

A local company then called and offered to replace the broken glass. Then, another company offered to install, at a huge discount, a steel security gate to prevent another break-in.

Casa Ora then opened back up for business.

Diaz says he couldn’t have opened if the neighborhood wasn’t there to help.

He says he is now looking forward to a few nights of quiet.

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