Vandals ransack South Side restaurant

La Presa Café sustains significant damage

SAN ANTONIO – A local restaurant won’t open Thursday after vandals targeted the small business.

The windows, circuit breaker and restaurant supplies were all destroyed at La Presa Cafe located in the in the 2600 block of South Presa Street.

The owner said he wonders if this could have been a personal vendetta.

"They didn't want us to open today," owner Norma Gomez said.

"It seemed like a targeted, it didn't seem random," said cook Mario Salazar.

"Anything that came to the charm of the cafe, we had a piñata, which got destroyed for no reason. We had a poster given to us by children at the local high school for donating food to them," Gomez said.

The restaurant, only open five months, won't make anything anytime soon.

Gomez is looking for an electrician to get her place back up and running.

"They came in through a window, so punched glass, and it went flying," said Gomez.

Gomez, a former electrical engineer, said she is now living her dream of owning a restaurant. She also said previous incidents also lead to her to believe she knows who is responsible.

A nearby security camera at a senior center might help investigators, so too might the blood and finger prints the vandals left behind.

Anyone with information is asked to call San Antonio police.