Last Tuesday morning, just before sunrise, the front door of Simply Soulful, a Black-owned soul food restaurant in Seattle’s Central District, was shattered during a break-in. The burglary came just hours before the business was set to launch a new community feeding program aimed at helping those facing food insecurity.
According to co-owner Lillian Rambus, the break-in occurred at 6:50 a.m., just moments after a shift change in the restaurant’s 24-hour security coverage. The intruder shattered the front door glass to gain entry and stole the restaurant’s daily cash box.
“The craziest thing is that we have 24-hour security,” said Rambus. “They had just switched shifts. One (security officer) had got into his truck. The guy that was coming on got out of his truck. He said his supervisor was coming that day, so he wanted to go ahead and do his walk around because normally he just sits in the parking lot across the street. He went to do his walk around the building and came back, and in that time, our restaurant had been broken into.”…