Justinian‘s Cafe and Dessert Bar in Campbelltown robbed, trashed

A Macarthur couple were “gutted” when their cafe was broken into, robbed and trashed, but have been overwhelmed by support from the community. See pictures of the damage.

A Macarthur couple has been left devastated after their Campbelltown cafe was ransacked and robbed, but the small business owners are determined to keep fighting.

Justin and Elizabeth Georgopoulos opened Justinian‘s Cafe and Dessert Bar in 2015 at Macarthur Square and have prided themselves on building a safe space and hub for family, friends and strangers.

On Friday morning, the pair received a call from their “distraught” chef.

“He had turned up to start work and walked in to find we had been robbed,” Mr Georgopoulos said.

Justin and Elizabeth Georgopoulos' business, Justinian’s Cafe and Dessert Bar, was robbed and ransacked. Picture: Annie Lewis

“He ran straight out and called us. I asked, ‘is there something wrong with the grill? Is there flooding?’.

“He said ‘no, the entire place has been ransacked’.”

Mrs Georgopoulos said it was gut-wrenching to walk through their shop and see the damage.

“Running any small business is tough, and when you couple that with a pandemic which has stretched for two years and then to come in and have a massive setback like this is devastating,” she said.

“It has taken us out trade for at least a week and caused a massive amount of damage.”

Mr Georgopoulos said those responsible had taken everything they could lay their hands on and trashed the rest of the cafe.

The cafe was trashed by the thieves.

NSW Police is investigating the break-in.

“They took everything except the coffee machine and the grill,” he said.

“They took cash, coffee syrups, blenders, milkshake machines, point of sales, modems, phones, coffee bags, printers, Uber tablets and a significant amount of paperwork - it was anything they could take.

“It felt like such a huge invasion of our privacy.”

The couple said they were incredibly relieved the cafe was empty at the time of the robbery, and none of their staff had been in any danger.

Mr Georgopoulos noticed that a cake had also been removed from the cabinet, and it appears the criminals helped themselves to a slice and a can of soft drink each.

“It’s not just the cost of replacing what they took,” he said.

“It’s the loss in trade and a potential loss of customers who might find somewhere else to take their business.

“Then there is also the impact on you mentally as well.”

Justin and Elizabeth Georgopoulos are exhausted but determined to keep fighting.

Mrs Georgopoulos said after what had happened, she wondered, “is it worth it to come back”.

But then she opened her social media and found hundreds of comments and messages on the cafe‘s social media that demonstrated just how well-loved by the community they were.

“If we didn’t get that outpour, I don’t know if we would have picked up,” Mrs Georgopoulos said.

“It’s been so much, and we didn’t know if we wanted to dig in again and keep pushing on when it is such a huge financial investment and so much emotionally.

“But having all those messages helped us get back up again and say ’let’s do this’. We also want to thank Daniel from Support Xpress, who has gone above and beyond to help us get back up again.”

Mr Georgopoulos said while it‘s been a hard two years and the robbery was “yet another blow”, they were fighters and being a part of the hospitality industry in Macarthur was in their flesh and blood.

“This community means a lot to us,” he said.

“It’s always been important to us to support the community through charities and sports groups.”

The couple hoped to be open again for business by the end of the week and encouraged customers to keep an eye out on their social media.

“We are a small, independent family business,” Mrs Georgopoulos said. “

We love what we do.”

“We will back,” Mrs Georgopoulos added. “We can’t wait to welcome people.”

A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers are investigating the incident.