Cigarette fiends smash Hopewell deli's windows in pursuit of Newports

The owners of a local deli are likely having a hard time feeling the Christmas spirit after two burglaries over a three day period left them short on cigarettes and forced them to board up much of the front of their store.

“Someone broke in twice last week,” said Sharmi Patel, who along with her husband Champak owns the Mainline Deli near the intersection of Shiloh Pike and West Park Drive.

Patel said the burglar or burglars took the typical fare expected of a convenience store break-in: cartons upon cartons of cigarettes.

“Altogether they took 24 cartons,” said Patel, adding that they stole all Newport and Marlboro brand, which cost $73 per box, for a total loss of $1,752 of product.

Patel suspects the same actor broke into the store both times this week.

She explained that she came in Saturday morning to find a large spiderweb crack in one of the store’s large front windows, which she had someone board over for her.

She then came in on Monday morning to find one of the large front windows by the cash register completely smashed out.

“That’s the one I still didn’t fix,” she said.

Patel said that while she has insurance for the store and its products, she would prefer to simply absorb the loss on her own rather than make a claim with the insurance company because she thinks they will raise her rates.

“I don’t go with the insurance because it just brings the rate up. I would rather just pay for it myself,” she said.

She estimated that the damaged windows would cost around $1,000 to repair.

Patel said that in the three years she and her husband have had the store in that location, they have suffered five break-ins.

In February, surveillance video from the store showed a man driving up to the store around 2 a.m. and winging an object at the store’s front window, damaging the glass that had just been replaced after a burglary four months before that.

Patel started using Plexiglas because it typically cracks but the window does not shatter.
Sgt. Brian Polite from the State Police said that reports about the incidents were not immediately available.

Patel said that police have increased their presence near the store, although it obviously has not helped.

“The police come and do extra rounds, but they didn’t catch anyone.”