SAN ANTONIO — Surveillance video showed thieves stealing more than $6,000 worth of merchandise from a popular San Antonio seafood chain over the weekend. Smashin Crab Commissary and Catering Company was hit more than once on Sunday. The company is now asking for the community’s help with identifying the suspects caught on camera.
Emma Robertson, the commissary’s general manager, made the shocking discovery Monday morning.
“As soon I pulled around the corner I saw the trash bags and the mattress and then looked up and saw that the freezer door was wide open, which is not normal,” Robertson said.
For at least the past three months, Smashin Crab has rented out a trailer that’s served as a freezer outside near the commissary’s loading dock. The freezer inside the warehouse is damaged and awaiting repairs.
The commissary kitchen serves as a community space for food prep and storage not just for Smashin Crab but other vendors as well.
Robertson said it was tough watching the surveillance footage that revealed three separate instances where multiple men were shown taking off with goods and equipment. Robertson noted other impacted vendors were notified about what happened.
“We have anything from snow crab to Dungeness crab in there to pork and chicken products,” Robertson said. “It’s really actually hard to watch after they were here for the third time, which is very sad to see all of our product just kind of go out the door and into a truck.”
The first break-in took place at 2:30 a.m. Sunday where one man is seen using bolt-cutters to knock off the lock from the external freezer. He’s accompanied by another individual who assists in loading boxes of product onto a white flatbed truck.
In the security video, backup arrives at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. where several men are seen loading merchandise onto a black suburban truck.
Robertson has faith in the community to help police in their investigation to track down the perpetrators.
Dozens of people have expressed support and criticism on Smashin Crab’s Facebook post about the incident. Robertson stressed the external freezer had a lock attached.
“We have the camera systems in place right now. We’ve moved the vehicle to make it harder to get into and then eventually we’ll have our freezer back inside.”
However, Robertson is comforted by those who shared their willingness to keep an eye out for the suspects.
“Smashin Crab is pretty well known in the community and San Antonio and I think they just want to help us figure out what happened and who did it and just get some justice,” Robertson said.
Anyone who has information on the Smashin Crab break-ins is urged to call San Antonio police.