A long-respected brand from 1988 was also targeted. Two restaurants in New York’s Chinatown were looted and their cash registers and cash stolen.

On the morning of the 29th, two restaurants were robbed in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Joyce Café at 60 Bayard St. and Wo Hop, a long-established restaurant at 17 Mott St., were broken into by the suspects. The cash kept inside along with the cash registers of both the shops was stolen. The total loss is estimated to be at least 1,400 yuan. Both cases are suspected to have been carried out by the same suspect, people familiar with the case said.

According to NYPD records, the Happy Tea incident occurred at 0:57 a.m. The reporter said that the restaurant closed at 11 o’clock last night. When he returned at 10:35 a.m. the next day, he found the front door broken in and the cash register behind the counter stolen. According to people familiar with the matter, the restaurant only had one entrance, and the suspect directly broke the lock and broke in and stole the cash register containing about 400 yuan in cash.

About two hours later, Hehe Restaurant was also vandalized. Police said an unknown suspect destroyed two of the restaurant’s doors with a hammer at 3:04 a.m., forced entry into the store, took merchandise and fled on foot along B Street. According to people familiar with the matter, the suspect first opened the first door, then broke the second glass door with a hammer, entered the basement, and stole the cash register containing about 1,000 yuan in cash.

Surveillance video of the Hehe restaurant obtained by this newspaper shows a man wearing a blue hooded shirt and a black mask break the glass and enter the restaurant. The man was wearing a dark blue backpack and a portable canvas bag. After entering the door, he went straight to the cashier to look for the goods.

Huang, manager of the Hehe restaurant, said the suspect did not leave until 3:34 a.m. and remained in the store for 30 minutes. Manager Huang said that he came to know at around 5.30 in the morning that there had been a theft in the restaurant. He was still sleeping when suddenly he got a call from a delivery person who told him that the glass of the door of the restaurant was broken. He immediately got up and rushed to the restaurant to investigate.

Hehe Restaurant opened in 1938 and has a history dating back 88 years. Manager Huang said that there has never been a case of theft in the restaurant. Even though Hehe had stayed open all night before, he had never encountered such an incident.

Since the underground business space of Hehe Restaurant was broken into, the area was closed for business that day, while the ground floor remained open for business as usual. Manager Huang also called on other merchants in Chinatown to be more vigilant and expressed hope that community safety could be improved.

Jingfu Chaji’s operation was also affected. By lunch time that day, food service had not been resumed. Some customers realized only after arriving at the store that they could not dine. When interviewed, the person in charge of Happy TG was unwilling to talk much about the matter, saying that he did not want to publicize the matter. He only said that the restaurant had never encountered such a case before.

After the two cases occurred, officers, detectives and members of the evidence collection team from the Fifth Bureau of the Municipal Police went to the scene to investigate, inspected the broken door lock, and collected evidence. City police told the newspaper that both cases were being investigated as thefts.

The suspect in both cases is suspected to be the same African-American man, according to people familiar with the matter. City police said that the matter is still under investigation.