Sunday morning, I came into the office to do some work (obviously). I scanned my card to unlock the doors to our building and as I walked in, I noticed the floor mat was scrunched up. I also noticed that the doors to The Prairie Soup Company were partially open (Prairie Soup is located on the skywalk level of our building, Plaza 425). Anyways, I didn't think too much of it and carried on.

As I was on my way out of the building, walking back by the doors of Prairie Soup, I noticed something else that was odd. Change covered the floor by the trash cans in the entrance. I thought "maybe they're doing some hard core sweeping and gathering up fallen change." I went on about my day not thinking twice about it. That is, until this afternoon.

I went to my favorite lunch spot conveniently located in our building (too convenient at times) to get some cheddar potato soup. While I was there, Frank (the owner) informed me that they were ROBBED early Sunday morning. Luckily, our building has tons of surveillance cameras and they got a pretty good picture of the culprit's face. Oh, and guess who was the next person to appear on the cameras after the robber--Yep, ME! Here I am coming in the building:

Danielle on Surveillance Camera
Plaza 425 Surveillance
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Now, the robbery itself took place around 3 a.m. and I didn't enter the building until just before 8 a.m. A man came in after me, noticed the displacement immediately and was the one who called the police. Even though I didn't catch on to the incident right away, the good news is that someone did. I'm also glad that I was never there when the robber was. That would have been scary, even though I do carry mace (so watch out criminals). The bad news is, the thief is still out there. Here is a picture of the suspect:

Prairie Soup Robber
Plaza 425 Surveillance
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The suspect broke into Prairie Soup by snapping off a piece of one of their signs out front and using it to bust open the lock on the front doors. *Notice the piece missing on the bottom.

Danielle
Danielle
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Once inside, he ripped the cash register out of the counter, and also stole a laptop. Here are some more pictures of the damage:

You never think this kind of thing is going to happen so close to home (or work in my case). The fact that someone would do this makes me angry, especially since this is my favorite lunch destination. Material items may have been stolen, but my love for this place was definitely not. I'm just glad that no one was hurt. If you have any information, please contact the Cedar Rapids Police Department at 319-286-5491.

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