March 19, 2024

Burglary causes Iron Horse to close for a day

A burglary at a popular Osceola restaurant caused it to go out of business for a day.

The burglary occurred at The Iron Horse Neighborhood Grill between the hours of late night Monday, Jan. 26, and early morning of Tuesday, Jan. 27.

According to a message on the Iron Horse’s Facebook page, the restaurant was closed for business Tuesday, Jan. 27, because of the burglary.

Tablets

“The reason they were closed is the little electronic tablets that they use for the customer orders, those were taken, along with some other things,” said Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus said.

Duffus said he believes the tablets would be worth money if sold illegally by a suspect, but the tablets appear to be “fairly industry specific.”

“I don’t know if they can be wiped and reused in another way. I don’t know that. That was very interesting to all of us,” he said.

If the tablets are industry specific to the restaurant business, they are worthless, Duffus said.

According to an update from The Iron Horse, the tablets are iPad 2s.

Duffus said he doesn’t believe any cash money was taken from the restaurant.

“There were other things taken that I’m going to hold onto, because if and when we do develop a suspect, in an interview, I want to make sure they’re the right ones,” he said.

Break-in

Because of an ongoing investigation, Duffus couldn’t give specific examples of how the break-in occurred.

“It’s a question that, let’s just put it (this way), they damaged the building,” he said.

According to Duffus, there’s a chance the burglary could have been done by only one individual. He said a good place to start the investigation might be a disgruntled former or current employee.

“You really don’t know that until you are farther into being able to identify the actual suspect,” he said. “Then, you start to identify their connections with the establishment. To me, this appeared pretty targeted, so, it’s possible.”

The Iron Horse will be back to normal hours starting Wednesday, Jan. 28.

Needing information

Duffus said, if the public knows anything, the police department would like to know it.

“We’re always open to getting somebody to tell us something,” he said. “Even if it’s something minute … you don’t get a flood out of one drop of water, you can get them out of a whole bunch, and that’s the way information comes in.”