BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three South Buffalo business owners are dealing with one of the city's latest break-ins. They are developers, who are also firefighters, and they're hoping someone out there can help figure out who stole from them.
Someone threw a brick through the front door of Hook & Ladder Development Wednesday morning on Seneca Street just before 6. The person then got in and stole computers and a bunch of sentimental items.
2 On Your Side first met the Hook & Ladder team in 2017 when they were featured in one of our City Shapers segments. They're friends and firefighters who are transforming South Buffalo homes and businesses to revitalize the Seneca Street corridor.
Editors Note: The above video is from 2 On Your Side's 2017 City Shapers segment on Hook & Ladder Development.
They say this is an isolated incident, and the community has been amazing with its support since this happened Wednesday.
"It's definitely not commonplace and by no means reflective of, you know, the current state of the community. It's a wonderful community. South Buffalo is a beautiful place. Seneca Street's a thriving commercial corridor with exciting things happening and it's unfortunate, but certainly an isolated incident," says Peter Scarcello of Hook & Ladder Development.
The developers told us that Buffalo Police have been working on getting surveillance video from other business owners.
"What I would say personally to this individual is instead of throwing a brick through our front door and stealing from your neighbor, he should have been knocking on our door to see if we had any opportunity for him to either work or earn some extra income. For someone to do that, I would have to believe that they're feeling some sort of despair in their life right now, and I would say the answer there is not to steal from your neighbor," added Scarcello.
"It goes both ways though. Like, you know, in exchange in situations like this, the same individuals came to us and said, hey we might know something or, hey I have a camera on my house, you know, is there anything I can do and just reaching out in that way, which it makes you feel good. It makes you feel good that you're, everybody's in this together, they're in this Seneca Strip and down here to really kind of make a difference," says Gino Gatti of Hook & Ladder Development.
They wanted to get the word out and posted about this on Facebook so people would know what happened so they can all look out for each other. They're also thankful no one got hurt.
CrimeStoppers is offering a $2,500 reward in this case. If you have information, call 716-867-6161.
