Lettuce Help

For those who know and love Baby Greens, you know that we had to close our operations at the end of 2022. The plan was to sublease the space. I talked to my landlord about making the space a pop-up restaurant location or bringing some food trucks over and turning it into a food trailer park. Those options were approved, and I was going to start marketing the space in February.

At the end of January, an ice storm left many parts of Austin without power ... including Baby Greens. During that time, someone broke into the restaurant and cut the wires to the electrical panels. Doing this meant that even after the power was restored to the city, it would not be restored at the restaurant. It also meant that the alarm system and the security cameras at Baby Greens would not be able to function.

At the first break in, the thieves stripped the copper wires from the building. They broke in by sawing through a deadbolt lock. I had a metal plate installed so that they could not saw through it again.

They came back a second time. This time, they broke in through a window and then pulled the door frame out of the building. This allowed them to begin stealing my equipment.

That night, I camped out in my car overnight, watching the building to make sure that the thieves did not return.

I hired on-site security to monitor the property so that the damage and theft would not continue. But that service is expensive, costing thousands of dollars a month. I spent everything I had keeping Baby Greens open, so I could only afford to pay for one month of service. I thought that my insurance company would have at least STARTED the repair work by the end of that month, but they are dragging their feet. So Baby Greens remains powerless.

This week, there was a third break-in. At this point I don't know the extent of the damage. I'll have to compare pictures from the last break to see what damage is new and what equipment is missing.

I rarely ask for help, but without on-site security, this building is going to continue to be burglarized.

Closing Baby Greens after working so hard to stay afloat during the pandemic was extremely difficult. But trying to protect something that I built from being stripped bare, is truly heartbreaking. At this point I'm as powerless as this building.

This GoFundMe will be used to pay for two months of on-site security service, so that there is not additional damage done to the property. Thank you for helping me and Baby Greens make it to the other side of this insane situation.