Lucky Bat Cafe Nightcliff: Nine break-ins in 15 months sees owner Caron Farrell reluctantly give up

“Many thousands of dollars have gone into the hands of thieves”: The disheartened owner of a Darwin cafe says she is returning to the simpler life after the business was relentlessly targeted by crims.

Lucky Bat Cafe staff after reopening the venue in January 2023. Picture: Facebook

The disheartened owner of a popular Darwin cafe says she is shutting up shop and returning to the simpler life of running her hobby food van after her business suffered nine break-ins in 15 months.

Caron Farrell took over Nightcliff Village’s Lucky Bat Cafe in January last year after previous owners Justin Schmidt and Danny Crichton, who founded the cafe in 2016, encountered choppy waters.

However, her tenure has been short-lived, with Ms Farrell taking to social media to reveal that Lucky Bat would trade until Wednesday at best, provided its dwindling coffee supplies can hold out.

When contacted by the NT News, Ms Farrell, a well-respected Territorian who has lived here for more than four decades, said the decision was forced upon her due to the financial toll of nine break-ins in 15 months.

“It’s extraordinarily disheartening when you come in and all your stuff is stolen,” she said.

“Many thousands of dollars have gone into the hands of thieves.

“You sort of bulk the place up, put in steel doors, try your very hardest to secure the premises as much as you can, but it doesn’t deter them, they’ll just break through them.”

Lucky Bat Cafe & Pizzeria, Nightcliff, will close by no later than Wednesday. Picture: File

Ms Farrell said she will now return to the less stressful climes of running her “hobby” food van, Dene’s Kitchen, which has been on hiaitus.

“I do need to give the old girl a clean, so after I recoup, I’ll get the old girl out,” she said.

In her social media statement announcing Lucky Bat’s closure, Ms Farrell was wistful.

“We are extremely grateful to all of you who have come and dined at our cafe. You will be missed,” she said.

“I have been truly blessed with many wonderful staff and an awesome support team who have helped me navigate through the last 15 months at the cafe.”

She also revealed that the Lucky Bat tenancy, 8 Pavonia Place, had been let to a new operator.

“The cafe premises will be opened again, I am not sure when or in what capacity [as I] haven’t been given this information,” Ms Farrell said.

Earlier this week, Mitchell Street’s Hanuman was broken into for the 15th time in six years, while Palmerston City’s Good Times Bar & Grill was hit twice in 48 hours.

Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce said the industry was “seeing a spate of after-hours break-ins and violent events when we are open”.

“These criminals are going to ever-increasing lengths to break in,” he said.

“They will steal two cars, write one off crashing into our venue, doing tens of thousands worth of damage, just to steal a few hundred bucks of grog.”