SAN ANTONIO – No power, no customers, and no income for over a week — it’s a reality small businesses in a shopping center near Ingram Park Mall are dealing with after copper thieves stole their electrical boxes.
“You’re robbing people of their livelihood, of their ability to generate, their ability to provide for their family,” said Kristina Zhao, owner of Sichuan House restaurant, about the recent thefts.
Other business owners in the shopping center located off Wurzbach Road behind Ingram Park Mall echoed Zhao’s frustrations.
“It takes stress on people that are income-based. You’re without a paycheck, and your rent is still due,” said Bridget Rivera, owner of the salon Hair by Alice.
Power to the shopping center was restored Monday morning. Rivera can start calling clients, but it’s not that simple for a restaurant that was forced to throw out food.
Zhao said they need to clean, reorder food, and then prep that food before opening. She’s hopeful they’ll be operational by Thursday.
She said the sales are needed after the setback this copper theft has caused. The total amount lost is still being calculated.
“It’s a lot. That’s like a quarter of our month if you think about it that way. And the rent is due, and electricity still has to be paid even though we didn’t have it for a week,” said Zhao.
The tenants say this is a familiar problem, as copper from their AC units was stolen about a year ago. They said during this most recent repair process, there was another attempt to steal the new copper, but it was not successful.
San Antonio police are aware of these incidents and are investigating.