By Aabigayle McIntosh
The management of popular eatery Fox House was forced to cancel bookings for several birthday celebrants and all other reservations on Sunday, following an overnight robbery.
Burglars hit the Valley Road Restaurant Saturday night leaving with around four refrigerators, other equipment, and food forcing the business to close its doors for the next few days.
According to owner Avella Fox, the restaurant was scheduled to open at 10 am Sunday, however instead of preparing to welcome guests she had to call ahead of time to apologize for the forced closure.
In a Facebook live video on Sunday Fox shared that she was alerted about the incident by a member of staff who was the first one to arrive to prepare for the business day.
“He said something is wrong, the fridge and them missing and I felt the heaviness in my chest I almost blank out”
“We got there and the two people who got there started to share what they encountered. But the more we went through what happened it seems like it was more than a robbery, it was more like they wanted to take us out of business”, she said.
A few members of staff who were featured in the video spoke about how heartbroken they were noting that Fox has been very diligent in working hard to ensure the doors of the business remain open and finding innovative ways to keep them employed.
Fox explained that she, along with the members of staff, “feel violated, like someone has come into our home and took something precious”, Fox said.
The farm-to-table restaurant opened at the height of the COVID-pandemic.
The restauranteur said the same amount of resilience she exercised then will be put into ensuring that the business can reopen later this week.
“A lot of people depend on me, not just my children. I have a lot of young people that depend on me and they look at me as to what they can become,” she said.
“I am not allowed to fail, I will be back,” she later vowed.
Condolences to the owner and employees.
Condemnation to the witnesses who refuse to assist in Solving this case.
It is not a purse or jewelry they snatched and ran with. Fridges and doves etc involves trucking. One person could not accomplish this. SOMEBODY had to see. While they were leaking the stuff out. While they were loading the. Truck/van. While the truck drove through the adjoining village. While the truck was unloading at its destination.
Somebody had to see, and in this day and age, almost everybody has a camera capable phone. There are videos out there. All that is needed is cooperation of decent citizenry.
I don’t need to condemn the thieves,,they have already condemned themselves. God will see to that.