ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The owner of Poki Poki Cevicheria says burglars hit his Wyoming location Sunday night, marking the third time this has happened this year.

As Robert Punya has been dealing with the aftermath of this, he says the community has rallied around him. And that means a lot to him.

“The Northeast Heights has always been really good to us, we love being out here,” he said.

Punya opened Poki Poki on Wyoming and Comanche eight years ago. Since then, he says he has seen things change in the area. 

“We’re just seeing a little more crime up in the Heights. We know that a lot of our restaurant counterparts are seeing the same crime,” he said. “In the last year, we’ve seen a lot more break-ins, we’ve never experienced as many as we’ve had.”

On Monday morning, Punya found a window missing from the front entrance. 

“We’ve had three this year with this most recent one yesterday just like the cherry on top, the guy took the whole safe from us,” he said. 

Security video shows the thief rifling through the office. Then, the video shows him picking up the entire safe and carrying it out of the office.

He was in and out in about five minutes. 

Punya says he’s at least grateful that the window wasn’t broken. He believes the thief suction-cupped the glass off to get in.

“Up here, it’s like very meticulous. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ll take out this glass pane window, crawl in and do a James Bond move’ on us,” Punya said.

Not only is this the third break-in in a year, it is the second break-in in nine days. Security video from the other recent break-in shows the thief dumping all the money out of the cash register drawers. 

Punya says the break-ins are personal. 

“Poki Poki’s like my home. This space, I’m here a lot and it just kind of feels like a violation of your home. And you come in very defeated, you know? You come in and we try to do a good job taking security measures,” he said.

Now, they’re looking at upgraded security measures and possibly going cashless full-time. For the time being, Punya said they will go cashless because of the stolen safe.

KOB 4 reached out to Albuquerque police about the break-ins and to see if this was an area wide issue, but we are still waiting to hear back.