Thomas MacMillan Photo
After his third break-in in eight days, Kadir Catalbasoglu reluctantly measured his deli window for iron bars — all because of one man who keeps coming back for cartons of cigarettes.
“This is really a shame, my friend. It looks like jail,” Catalbasoglu (pictured) said on Monday afternoon as he hefted one of the angle irons he planned to bolt across his window. The bars will join a metal pull-down grate that the deli owner installed last week to cover all the other windows at the Whalley Grocery and Deli, across from the shuttered Shaw’s supermarket on Whalley Avenue.
Catalbasoglu’s extra security measures come in response to a recent rash of burglaries at the deli he’s operated for five months. Burglars have smashed windows and entered the store three times in the last eight days. Catalbasoglu said it’s been the same guy each time. His video cameras have him on tape.
The man has been stealing nothing but Newport cigarettes and small amounts of cash.
According to Catalbasoglu and his staff:
The first break in occurred early on the morning of Sunday May 15. The burglar, with an accomplice, smashed a window with a stump and made off with cash and cartons of cigarettes. Catalbasoglu put plywood over the broken window.
The burglar was back the next morning at around the same time, alone this time. He smashed a second window and took more cigarettes and cash.
With two broken windows, Catalbasoglu had a few employees stay all night in the deli, to prevent another burglary. Then he installed pull-down metal grates to cover the windows.
But there was still one window left to smash: a small take-out style sliding window. That’s the window that the burglar smashed at 4:35 on Sunday morning. He climbed in, cleared the deli of Newport 100s and climbed out.
“We’re scared over here,” said a deli worker who asked not to be named. He said he worries the burglar might come back with a gun, after he finds all the windows barred.
Cook Daisy Scott speculated that the burglar is selling the Newport cartons on the street. With each carton retailing for $80, she estimated the burglar’s stolen at least $2,000 in Newports at each burglary.
“The police need to work a little harder,” Catalbasoglu said as he prepared to install new window bars. He said he’s given the police several video clips of the burglar in action.
“It’s a shame that we’re getting robbed in the middle of town,” said Catalbasoglu, who has started five businesses in New Haven, including A‑1 Pizza. Originally from Turkey, Catalbasoglu has lived in the U.S. for 18 years.
“You never think the same guy’s going to come the next day,” he said. “It’s bad. We need more police.”