Andrew Myers and a fellow manager at Wally's White River Drive-In in Buckley went to work Sunday to an unsettling sight: a back window had been smashed overnight and nearly all the other windows around the building had shoe marks on them, indicating someone tried to kick those in too.
Thankfully, the restaurant's alarm system, which was on, remained untriggered, meaning the suspect or suspects didn't appear to enter the building and nothing was stolen, Myers said.
The restaurant was forced to open a little late and the dining room was shut down while staff cleaned up the mess and boarded up the broken window, which looks like it will take between $800 to $1,000 to repair, he said.
The city of Buckley has seen a spike in burglaries in the October to December time frame last year -- four commercial instances and four to five residential break-ins, said Buckley Police Chief Jim Arsanto. The Courier-Herald reported Sheer Magic was broken into in December, and the 410 Cafe was another victim.
Officers have been quick to act, however. From those cases, four people have been arrested and a fifth has a warrant out for him. "Our guys did a fabulous investigation on it," he said.
Despite the small spike, Arsanto said break-in crimes had been down for 2012. The newest incident at Wally's would be the first to have occurred in this new year since those arrests. Reached for comment Monday on a day off, Arsanto said he hadn't yet seen the police report on the incident.
