Houston Restaurant Owners Are Sleeping In Their Businesses, Armed, To Keep Out Burglars Because Of City’s Lax Bail Policies

Restaurant and bar owners Houston To protect themselves from robbers, they are asleep in their homes, armed.

To prevent another spate of break-ins in recent weeks, the restaurant owners decided to sleep in their restaurants. According to the owners, their businesses were broken into multiple times by the same suspect. They placed the blame on Houston’s bail policies, which have resulted in more criminals out on the streets.

“We’ve been broken into six times now,” Tod Jones, owner of Glitter in Midtown Houston told local media outlet KHOU. “They’re coming in, grabbing as many bottles as they can, throwing it in a bag and then they’re out. Both my windows are broken, and I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t even want to fix them because they’re going to be broken again in the next few days.’”

Jones stated that thieves caused more than $20,000 of damage and stole alcohol. “At this point, you don’t even want to claim it on your insurance, because you don’t want to lose your insurance,” He said. “You just have to fix it yourself.” KHOU reported Jones sleeping at the bar now, closing at night and rising in the morning to protect his property.

Raul Jacobo, owner of Cobos Barbecue East Downtown, is also found sleeping in the back of his restaurant, with a gun in waiting for burglars. The restaurant was broken into twice, both times in less than two weeks despite it being just one block from a Houston Police Department headquarters. Jacobo and his security guard caught a thief, and they held him until the police arrived. “Police got there, he had his bag with all his tools in it, ski mask,” He said. “Then, next thing I find out, he’s out the next day.”

“We are literally one street away from an [HPD] substation and we have a criminal that is breaking in twice in four days and doesn’t care about any consequence,” He concluded.

“I have been burglarized 15 times in the last year,” Lindsey Rae of Two-Headed Dog Houston said this at a recent city council meeting via the New York Post. “We’re seeing, if they are getting caught, they’re getting re-released because of the cash bond issues we’re having,” She continued. “They can come back and rob us again.”

ABC affiliate investigates 2021 KTRK found that Houston’s bail policies have allowed more criminals back onto the streets. The outlet discovered that only 3.5% percent of Harris County cases in 2011 resulted with defendants being released on felonious bond. In 2021, however, defendants were released in 18.8% of cases, almost six times more often. For defendants posting felony bonds, the most common charges were felon in possession or control of a weapon and aggravated assault using a deadly weapon.

In addition, the investigation found that criminals were engaging in more crimes while on bail. Only 3.5% of cases in 2011 involved defendants who were already on at least one felony bond. In 2021, this number jumped to 19%. 968 of those cases involved accused felons who allegedly committed at least four new crimes after being released on bond. The outlet discovered that one of the suspects was currently held on 13 separate bonds.

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