Austin business owners are expressing frustration after a suspect was arrested a second time for multiple store break-ins.
AUSTIN, Texas — Local business owners throughout Austin are concerned after a series of break-ins at their stores. Police arrested a man for a second time on Wednesday, in connection with several burglaries throughout the city.
According to the Austin Police Department, 34-year-old Jarvis Henderson was arrested on July 15 because he was believed to be behind burglaries at six different businesses. He was released on July 21 on a personal recognizance bond.
Then, Henderson was again on July 23, accused of burglarizing a seventh business.
“The fact that he continues to get away with this and then is so comfortable doing it to multiple small businesses,” said Casey Buckingham, owner of The Plant Society. “It’s really confusing that this isn’t enough to, you know, keep him away.”
Buckingham’s shop was one of the original six businesses that were broken into early last week. She had a shocking wake-up call when she checked her phone’s security footage early on the morning of July 14.
“I was actually half asleep, really confused, looking at it, and was watching the robbery like, in real time as he was just rummaging through my store,” Buckingham said.
After calling the police, Buckingham showed up to find her double-pane glass door shattered and the iPad and card reader stolen. She said even though only a few items were taken, the burglary set her back in day-to-day operations of the shop.
“It was scary,” Buckingham said. “It just felt violating.”
La Plancha on East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is another of the businesses that got hit. Neighbors of the owner called her, saying that the window had been smashed. When she got there, she found the suspect had taken two beers from her cooler and left it open, causing damage.
The window and cooler repair combined will cost about $5,000, but what’s more concerning for the owner is the new fear she has.
“I’m waking up every day, hoping to not see another window broken,” La Plancha’s ower siad. “It’s just a lot … This is our livelihood. I mean, this is our everything.”
After comparing security footage with other local business owners, the owner of La Plancha realized several of them appeared to have been broken into by the same person. Now that Henderson has been arrested once again, the business owners are upset a judge let him out of jail after the first six incidents.
“Why is he back out continually doing it?” Buckingham said. “Like, will he go to the same places? Will he do it again?”
KVUE reached out to Henderson’s attorney for a comment, but we have not received anything back yet.
