The Mill Market and Deli was in shambles when owner Jim McCarthy walked in the morning of July 8. The front doors had been kicked in, the door to the back office had been broken and his safe, containing a couple of days worth of cash, was gone.
“It’s a little disheartening to deal with,” McCarthy said. “At the same time, we have too much going on to let it keep us down for long.”
McCarthy isn’t the only local business owner hit by burglars this month. There has been a wave of burglaries in Chittenden County — Mill Market and Deli and Aviation Market, both in South Burlington; Frost Beer Works and Jiffy Mart, both in Hinesburg; and the Simons 2A store in Essex.
The Aviation Deli break-in is the only case in which an arrest was made. South Burlington police arrested David Oleson, 37, on charges that he stole an ATM at the business on July 8. Olsen was charged with other ATM thefts in 2020.
Detective Sgt. Gerard Eno of the South Burlington police and Hinesburg Police Chief Anthony Cambridge said they’re looking into possible connections between the burglaries in their communities.
Similar items — cash, cigarettes and tobacco — were stolen in all of the burglaries, and local business owners lost a fair chunk of change.
At the Mill Market and Deli, a safe that contained a couple of days’ worth of cash sales was stolen July 14. Burglars took almost $1,000 from the cash drawer at Frost Beer Works on July 12, and on July 16, $3,500 was taken from Simons 2A store in the middle of the night.
However, Eno said the number and frequency of burglaries is not out of the ordinary.
“We don’t have break-ins a lot. But usually one or two people do it at once. So, they come in waves,” he said. “Having a series of burglaries is not unusual.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Police investigating series of burglaries in Chittenden County.