The Raconteur Room and Honey Bronde Salon were broken into on Saturday, Aug. 27, at approximately 2:34 a.m.
ATASCADERO — In the early hours of the morning of Saturday, Aug. 27, at approximately 2:34 a.m., both The Raconteur Room and Honey Bronde Salon were broken into by forced entry. Both the community of Atascadero and local businesses have shown up to show support since Saturday morning.
Tyler Clark, the owner of The Raconteur Room, stated that according to cameras, after attempting to break into Traffic Records, the perpetrator then bashed in his bar’s door.
“[He] bashed in my door, threw kegs into the bar, threw our ashtray that’s out back, full of cigarettes, all over the bar. Threw a pallet into the bar. Threw kegs, like we have some empty kegs out back to be returned to the distributors, tossed them all over like they were some sort of shot put in the Olympics or something,” continued Clark. “Luckily, nothing super major got broken.”
After posting about the break-in on social media and getting a few tips, Clark found footage of the perpetrator at The Raconteur Room earlier that night. Clark is currently in contact with the officer who filed the report, and the authorities know who committed the vandalism.
“The silver lining was, we posted about it, and we’ve had just a crazy response from, you know, the community,” Clark said. “We had like a big day Saturday. A lot of people we haven’t seen in a while came in to show support. We’ve had a lot of other businesses around reaching out to see if we need any help. So that was really cool to see.”
Two doors down, Honey Bronde Salon was also notified of a break-in Saturday morning. Owner Brittany Tenhaeff said she received notice of the break-in from the police at 2:45 a.m.
“Both of my doors were broken. At first, I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on,” said Tenhaeff. “I walked in; there was blood all the way through the salon. He had broken through the back door. He came through the back and then kicked out the front [glass door].”
The perpetrator apparently cut himself while kicking out the salon’s front door made of glass and left a blood trail throughout her business on his return to the business’s back door. He also bled in the rear parking lot before vacating the area.
Aside from a few hair products being taken and the broken doors, Tenhaeff said there was no other damage to her salon.
“We’ve never had any issues,” Clark said. “We’ve never had cops have to come to our bar. We’ve never had anything, so I just want people to know that Atascadero is a fun, safe place to go out and have a drink and watch a band and grab a record and get your hair cut.”
Appropriate burglary and vandalism charges will be filed with the SLO County District Attorney’s Office once more information is released.