Police: Thieves Broke Into Newly Reopened Rocklin Restaurant And Steal Thousands From Safe

ROCKLIN (CBS13) — A Rocklin restaurant owner is regrouping after her business was broken into and a safe was stolen.

Newcastle Pizzeria Rocklin had just reopened their doors after closing for several months because of the COVID-19 crisis when another crisis hit. Owner Julie Sattler said on Tuesday morning thieves cut power to the shopping center where they are located and broke in.

"So no cameras, no alarm was going off when they broke in," she said.

They jimmied the door and tried to cut through the drywall in the back of the restaurant. When that wasn't successful, the thieves climbed up a ladder to the roof where they tore open the chimney and climbed down into the restaurant, causing nearly $7,000 in damages.

Once inside, they then broke into the office and stole a safe with another $5,000 to $6,000 of cash inside. Their journey was chronicled with finger prints and boot tracks.

"That evidence will be reviewed by our lab and hopefully we will be able to use that evidence to be able to determine who did this," Greg Jensen with Rocklin Police said.

The pizzeria will be closed until repairs can be made to the oven they lovingly call Stella. It's just another set back

"It's hard on the business, especially right now with the virus and everything else going on," manager Kelsey Jones said.

But Sattler vows to keep moving forward and paying it forward for the two dozen employees who work there.

"Especially now they just got off unemployment to come back to work on the 28th and now this happened to them, I won't allow them to lose their apartments or not be able to feed their children," she said.