Black Lime Cafe Carrara, Three Tree Frogs Helensvale, both broken into in overnight raids

Video has shown youths smashing their way into a suburban Gold Coast cafe – one of two targeted in the early hours of Tuesday morning. See what happened.

CAFE owners in Carrara and Helensvale have been left thousands of dollars out of pocket after having their windows smashed and tills stolen during overnight break-ins.

Shortly before four o’clock on Tuesday three masked youths used a hammer to break through a glass door at the popular Black Lime Cafe on Pappas Way in Carrara, while another appeared to keep watch in the car park.

The youths – two males and two females – made off with the cafe’s till and a tip jar.

Black Lime cafe owner Sarah Parish pictured at the damaged cafe’s front door. Picture” Glenn Hampson.

Owner Sarah Parish said the biggest loss, however, was from not being able to open on Tuesday while she waited for damage to be repaired.

“We’ve lost out on our takings for the day,” Ms Parish said.

“And it’s affected my staff too. They’ve lost their hours today. I’ve had to cancel their shifts, so it will affect their income. Which I feel sorry for as well, because everybody needs to pay their rent, buy food.”

Ms Parish, who has owned the cafe since July, said that while the cost to her and her staff was significant, the intruders had made off with little.

“It was just coins in there (the till),” Ms Parish said.

“But they took the tip jar too. And of course it was full. We were planning on emptying it today. So that’s even more frustrating.”

Youths pictures breaking into the Black Lime Cafe in Carrara.

Ms Parish said the empty till was found by workers mowing grass at sports fields to the rear of the cafe, however it was destroyed and would need to be replaced.

She also feared what might have happened if the intruders had been just an hour later, when a staff member would have been present.

“She (the staff member) was half an hour early for work,” Ms Parish said. “She wasn’t starting until 5.30. She was here at five, because she’s like that. She could have been here. It was only a matter of an hour.”

Youths pictures breaking into the Black Lime Cafe in Carrara.

Youths pictures breaking into the Black Lime Cafe in Carrara.

Youths pictures breaking into the Black Lime Cafe in Carrara.

Ms Parish said she would not be deterred by the break-in, and was looking forward to reopening on Wednesday.

“It’s a community here. That’s what I love about it. It’s like a family,” she said.

“People who don’t know each other outside of here will sit down together.

“That’s why I wanted this cafe. Everybody just gets to know each other just from coming in to buy a cup of coffee.”

Three Tree Frogs owner Luke Synnott beside a broken window at his Helensvale cafe, where intruders broke in and stole a till and mobile phone. Picture: Keith Woods.

The owner of Three Tree Frogs Cafe on Sir John Overall Drive in Helensvale, Justin Synnott, also arrived to work on Tuesday morning to find a window broken and till stolen.

“It (the break-in) must have been in the early hours of the morning,” Mr Synnott said.

“When we came in we found the window broken and deodorant bottles around.

“They took the till and all the money that was in there. They also took a mobile phone used by the cafe.

“They just took what they could and left.”

Mr Synnott said it was the second night in a row – and third time in two months – a window had been broken at the cafe, which is located near to the Helensvale Plaza shopping centre car park where a teenager was shot in the arm last month.

“The first one was broken two months ago,” Mr Synnott said.

“Only yesterday we had another broken window at the back. There was a homeless person living out there. They left a bit of a mess but they didn’t take anything.”

Both Ms Parish and Mr Synnott said they had been requested by police to fill out online report forms.

Police, who responded within minutes to the Black Lime Cafe break-in, told the Bulletin that they were called to the scene around 4am after receiving a call in regards to the incident. A spokesperson said they were awaiting the report from Ms Parish and were “conducting follow-up enquiries”.

The spokesperson said they were called to the Three Tree Frogs cafe break-in at 6am and investigations into that incident were ongoing.

“No link has been identified at this stage,” the spokesperson said.

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