When Lorenzo’s Pizzeria owner Larry Cariglio went to use his generator for a catering job on the morning of Oct. 15, he had a problem — the generator wasn’t there.

Sometime between Friday at midnight and Saturday morning, someone walked into the pizzeria’s unlocked storage shed and stole the red Honda generator estimated to be worth more than $1,000.

The very next night, burglars struck again.

According to Cariglio’s account of surveillance footage, at around 4 a.m. on Oct. 16 a burglar pried open a door with a pizza peel, walked through the dining room to the back door and let another person into the restaurant.

But that’s where the tape ends. Cariglio stated that he believes at least one of the culprits for the second break-in must have been an employee or an ex-employee, since they knew how to shut down the restaurant’s power to turn the cameras off.

The burglars’ height, clothing and shoe style can be gleaned from the video.

However, the burglars only managed to steal $100 in $1 and $5 bills by prying open part of the money safe, leaving $250 in larger denominations behind.

“They thought they had a key but they didn’t,” Cariglio said. “Either that or it was so dark that they couldn’t see anything.”

According to Lieutenant Michael McCloskey, the Oberlin Police Department has no evidence that the two crimes are linked and has yet to identify any suspects.

“The investigation is still in a pretty early stage,” McCloskey said.

He noted that investigators are interviewing both former and current employees and trying to track down the generator online and in pawn shops. The department will also keep a closer eye on the pizzeria in the near future.

“Any time you have an incident like that where a location has been targeted, officers are usually more aware, so we’ll provide extra patrol and extra surveillance of the area just to kind of deter any future incident,” McCloskey said.

In addition, Cariglio said that the pizzeria will bolt the generator shed, have locksmiths strengthen all the doors and have a surveillance company install a new camera system.

Cariglio said that the last theft at Lorenzo’s occurred four years ago.

“We’ve been here a long time, 30-some-odd years, and it just doesn’t seem like it ever changes. It’s the same thing all the time,” Cariglio said.

When asked if theft is a common problem in the food service industry, Cariglio speculated that the thefts could have been motivated by addiction.

“I think there’s issues today with a lot of young people; they have very bad habits that day in and day out money can’t handle,” Cariglio said. “It’s unfortunate — if it’s not drugs, it’s alcohol. Basically, the best deterrent is just making sure everybody knows that there are cameras and we’re able to watch different facets of the business to keep people honest. It’s a shame, but it’s the way it is.”