‘Everything is getting destroyed’: Owner of Jim-Denny’s frustrated after fifth break-in this year
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SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — The owner of a small business is looking for help after a man broke into her restaurant over the weekend, causing damage that will cost thousands of dollars to repair.
It happened at Jim-Denny’s on 12th Street in downtown Sacramento early Saturday morning. The owner, N’Gina Guyton, said this is the fifth time the restaurant has been broken into within the last year.
“We live by such narrow margins that it makes it hard. But I am hell-bent on keeping this spot open,” Guyton said. “It’s important to the Sacramento legacy, this is an iconic building, to keep the dice rolling on it.”
Guyton said the man broke in just before 3 a.m. She said he didn’t take anything, but she believes he had plans to stay put.
“He had taken patio tables and built barricades so that nobody could get onto the patio. He, when he came inside, ripped all of our appliances out to plug in Tasers. He had knives around the building for protection. He pulled the security alarm system completely out of the wall and shredded the electrical system,” she said. “His ideology was to stay here.”
When officers arrived, Sacramento police said the suspect, 31-year-old Mark Troyer, tried to grab an officer’s gun, hit an officer and found a way to remove a handcuff.
He was arrested and booked into jail.
“The things that he destroyed inside of the restaurant, I don’t even know if I have the money to replace those things,” Guyton said. “I have to say that’s even more traumatic than taking things, because when you’re having to clean your restaurant and rebuild things and things are just being destroyed, like everything is getting destroyed.”
Guyton said she’s determined to come back from this and carry on the legacy of Jim-Denny’s.
“If I can, I’m going to stick it out as long as I can do it,” she said. “I’m not saying I’m not tired— I am, but I do it for them as much as I do it for myself.”
While she wishes she saw more action from the city to keep this from happening, the support she sees from the community is what keeps her coming to work.
“Sacramento, when they rally behind their small businesses, they really rally behind their small businesses. And it has been beautiful,” she said. “I’m not going to lie. I feel horrible asking for help again and again and again. But this community, they have just said we don’t care because it is important to us that this place still exists. It is important to us that you still exist in this place. And I, I cannot thank people enough.”
Guyton put out a post on social media after the break-in over the weekend. Every day since then, she said she has sold out of food from waves of customers coming in to show their support.
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