Fayetteville restaurants lose cash, peace of mind in series of burglaries

Michael Chun, general manager of the Hibachi Grill Supreme Buffet on Bragg Boulevard, said, "It's very nerve-racking. It's kind of like a terror-type thing."

The victims of the burglaries have all been Asian restaurant owners, and Chun said practices by some of his peers make them a target.

"I think he's just targeting them because some of them are just easy targets," Chun said. "We, on the other hand, are not as easy as the rest because we use safes. We use the bank. We use systems like that."

Police have surveillance video of a man trying to break the front window of Little China restaurant on Ramsey Street, and a description of a Ford Focus hatchback made between 2011 and 2014.

Shawn Strepay, spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department, said the same man is a suspect in 15 burglaries over four months, and that he has made off with thousands in cash.

"He's entering after the businesses are closed," Strepay said. "He's usually breaking a window, going in and then stealing things from inside and then leaving the businesses."

Chun said the losses are not always covered by insurance.

"We don't have receipts for some of the stuff that they broke," he said. "They stole the entire register. We don't have receipts for that, so we can't claim that on our insurance."