Cash and cigarettes stolen from P&L Deli
— Photo from P&L Deli Facebook page
Delicious goods line the counter of P&L Deli, which was broken into Sunday night, leaving owners without $1,000 in both cash and cigarettes and a broken cash register.
WESTERLO — A burglary in Westerlo has left the P&L Deli missing about $1,000 and a working cash register.
The Westerlo business was broken into sometime between 5 p.m. on Sunday, when the store closed, and 8 a.m. on Monday, when an employee came in to open the deli, said Albany County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy William Rice on Wednesday. Police arrived about 20 minutes after 9-1-1 was called, he said.
The sheriff’s office is currently investigating the matter.
“Nothing’s been ruled out at this point,” Rice said.
Aimee Plateroti, a manager at the P&L Deli, said that Lucy Rufa, the former owner and mother of current owner, Pete Rufa, had walked in on Monday morning to find all the cigarettes gone and the register broken. Plateroti had closed the shop the night before.
“Everything was locked up tight,” she said.
About $500 in cash from the register was stolen, as well $540 worth of cigarettes, said Rice.
The cash register, valued at about $500, was damaged in the burglary, said Plateroti. She is not sure when the store’s only register will be replaced.
“We’re just kind of working with what we have,” she said, meaning totaling on a calculator the prices of items, which many of the employees already know by heart, she said.
Rice said that the perpetrator entered the store through an unlocked window. He is not sure how the person left the building. Other than the register, no other damages were reported, he said. He does not know if the store has cameras or alarms.
Plateroti said she is not worried by the incident, remarking that she used to work in a far more dangerous area at a store in North Carolina, “where all the gangs were.” A few people have remarked about the burglary, but she said it has not affected customer traffic.
“If anybody has any information, we sure could use it,” she said.
Rice said that burglaries are uncommon in the Hilltowns, but that, in general, commercial burglaries are more likely than residential thefts.
“That’s the only one we’ve had in a long time,” he said, of the Westerlo burglary.
