PORTLAND, Ore. — Nick Peck is still in disbelief over what he discovered at one of the bars he owns in Southeast Portland.
"It's like a movie," said Peck, owner of Thatchers on Southeast Stark Street in the Montavilla neighborhood.
Monday morning, Peck arrived at Thatchers to find a damaged back door and a damaged ATM following a burglary.
"It just didn't make sense," he said, adding that his security system never alerted him to the break-in.
He scoured his security footage and eventually stumbled across a man, during business hours Sunday, putting tape over the motion sensors scattered around the bar.
"This guy is a professional thief," Peck said. "He's by far above what I've had so far happen to me."
Hours after casing the bar, the guy cut a hole in the back door, crawled in, broke into the ATM, stole booze and left, Peck said. He said the whole thing will cost him between $5,000 and $6,000.
"To be robbed or stolen, stuff stolen out of your pocket you can't get back, is super frustrating," Peck said.
It only gets worse.
Peck said just one night earlier, somebody broke into another one of his businesses: Mulligan's Bar and Grill on Southeast Hawthorne.
"He tried to go to the ATM for a second then left it alone and went to the register," Peck said. "It doesn't look like the same guy."
Peck is not the only one dealing with this. Break-ins are happening all over Portland. In the last two weeks, several businesses were broken into on Southeast Division Street.
"This is my passion," said Morning Dove Barranger of Coral Story Beauty, one of the businesses that was targeted on Division. "This is what I love to do. It's super frustrating. It's violating."
It is a sentiment echoed by Nick Peck, who is choosing to remain positive.
"They'll be little speed bumps, I guess," Peck said. "When the sun comes back out in the spring, I think we'll all be in a better place."