PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP -- A popular drive-in in Luzerne County had thousands of dollars worth of damage and loss after its concession stand was burglarized.
Employees at the Garden Drive-In on Route 11 near Shickshinny say the break-in happened early Saturday morning.
“You could see this is smashed,” said Dave Hudzik, the manager of the Garden Drive-In.
Hudzik pointed out several spots where a projector was damaged.
He said this vandalism happened during a break-in at the concession stand which they believe happened around 2 a.m. Saturday.
Hudzik says they broke in through the projector room window which had been padlocked.
“And smashed out the glass. There's like a quarter-inch thick plate glass in front of the projector and that's how they got in,” said Hudzik.
Once inside, the thief or thieves began damaging several pieces of equipment before making off with an odd assortment of stolen goods from the drive-in.
“They took two cheese machines,” said Hudzik. “A hot chocolate machine, a couple cases of hamburger, and some steaks, a couple of cases of the steaks.”
No money was taken since none is left in the stand overnight, but Hudzik says what's left behind is thousands of dollars in damage.
“For some reason, they tried to pry everything open here,” said Hudzik, pointing at the projector.
The projector is now broken, so movies can't be shown on the drive-in's bigger screen, only on the smaller second screen.
Lynn Kinney is the manager of Banko's Seafood Restaurant just down Route 11 and was very upset to hear what happened.
“It's just a shame. It's like, we're a small business. They're a small business, a family thing, you always want to see the families do well,” said Kinney.
16-year-old Jamison Morris just watched “Suicide Squad” on the big screen at the drive-in. He wants whoever did this caught.
“I think it's ridiculous that people do all this stuff that they do. I think it's dumb,” said Morris.
The Garden Drive-In is offering a $1,000 reward for information on this break in that leads to an arrest and conviction.
