ST. LOUIS – The owner of a popular Soulard bar says his business has been targeted for the third time in six weeks. This time, the burglars stole more money and damaged even more property than before. Friday’s burglary happened right before the start of a busy Memorial Day weekend.
The break-in happened early Friday morning at Big Daddy’s Bar in Soulard. Owner Jon Vieluf, an Army veteran himself, said he’s tired of dealing with these criminals.
Surveillance video, captured around 3 a.m. Friday, shows the moments three burglars broke in, causing as much as an estimated $10,000 in damage. Vieluf said the thieves also hauled off an ATM with $1,000 inside and also got away with roughly $2,500 in cash.
“It looks like they broke out our patio window, came in, and just destroyed the whole back area of our bar,” Vieluf said.
Vieluf said it’s the third time his bar has been targeted in just over a month. They suffered another costly burglary back on April 10, when a group of young people, including an 18-year-old wearing a GPS ankle monitor at the time, broke into the bar. He said the group caused about $1,200 in damages and got away with $1,000 in cash. Two of the suspects were arrested in that case.
Vieluf also shared video with FOX 2 of another attempted break-in back on May 12. The suspects there caused minor damage to a window before burglarizing another business down the street.
After reviewing the video from Friday’s burglary, Vieluf said it’s clear to him that these suspects looked and acted differently than the other ones.
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“It seemed like they were older, and it seemed like they knew what they were going after,” he said.
Vieluf said he doesn’t understand why people are targeting his business or returning to these kinds of crimes in the first place.
“Everybody’s hiring right now. Go get a job,” he added.
The longtime owner of the popular Soulard establishment said he feels it’s time the city of St. Louis dedicated more resources toward its police department, especially with millions of dollars from the Rams settlement on hand. That way, they can track down more of these suspects and also deter these kinds of crimes from happening.
“How many millions of dollars are they sitting on? And no one knows what they’re going to spend it on,” Vieluf said. “Maybe spend it on, you know, filling the vacancies and giving raises to the police officers.”
Vieluf fears that if the city doesn’t act soon, more people will choose to avoid going downtown.
“There is a stigma with downtown. And if they don’t fix it, they’re going to lose a lot of tax revenue. More than they already have,” he said.
Anyone with information about these recent burglaries in the Soulard neighborhood is encouraged to call police right away.
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