TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — A popular Taylorsville restaurant had to deal with quite a mess after someone broke into the business early Sunday morning.
April and Ross Siragusa have owned and operated Siragusa's Taste of Italy for 12 years. The restaurant on Redwood Road specializes in fresh, made-to-order pastas.
Last week, the Siragusas made a road trip to Illinois to see family.
"We hadn't seen his family since before COVID and so I made a suggestion: 'Let's go to Chicago,'" April said.
"I haven't seen my family in four years, so it was nice to get all of us children together in one place," added Ross.
The fun family vacation ended up being cut short.
The Siragusas said they got a call while at brunch on Sunday that their longtime business had been broken into.
"It's very disheartening," Ross said.
Cameras outside of their business show a car pulling up around 4:45 a.m., then a person is seen breaking the front door window and going inside.
"Apparently they had a tool to use to get through the window," April said.
"It goes to show you that, even with the security cameras, the alarm system, something that brazen can happen so quickly," added Ross.
Ever Chaparro, a chef at Siragusa's for nearly 12 years, was the first person to show up to work on Sunday.
"There was glass all around this area," said Chaparro. "All the equipment, everything was here on the floor."
Chaparro says it was hard to see a place that he calls a second home get broken into.
"It's kind of depressing too, you know, when all the monitors on the ground," he said. "It's a horrible thing."
Chaparro and the Siragusas say whoever broke in made away with one of their cash drawers. They are unsure how much money was in it at the time.
"As far as cash, very little on hand at all times," Ross said.
A bigger loss, the Siragusa's say, was in the form of revenue. They had to close their doors for the day on Sunday after the break-in took place.
"Probably $2,500 to $3,000," Ross said. "There's a significant loss in not just revenue, but extra payroll, and yeah, it hurts."
The Siragusas told FOX 13 News that their cameras inside the restaurant were able to capture video of the incident. They are working to get that footage to the Taylorsville Police Department.
Calling this a bump in the road, they say they are thankful no one was inside the restaurant when the break-in took place.
"We'll survive this. We survive a lot," Ross said.
The Siragusas say they are thankful for the support they have seen from the community since this incident happened — whether through phone calls, text messages or social media.
They plan to be back in Utah on Tuesday and have the restaurant back open at normal hours, beginning at 11 a.m.
The Siragusas say they are looking into additional security measures, in hopes of keeping this from happening again.
No arrests have been made in this incident at this time.
Taylorsville Police shared pictures of this car leaving the scene:
They are asking any nearby businesses or homes that may have captured any video to call them at 801-840-4000.
