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'It looked like a bank heist': Macon restaurant owner talks break in and community response

The emotional Macon restaurant owner closed off the video with a simple request for viewers: "Pray for us."

MACON, Ga. — The owner of Keene's Kafe – a new Macon restaurant that has been open for the past five months – says his store was broken into Wednesday morning in an emotional video released on the restaurant's Facebook page.

"Someone broke into our store this morning, and destroyed what they could destroy," owner Jonathan Keene said. "They took everything that I have."

In the nearly two-minute emotional video, Keene said that burglars took their cash, their cash register and their safe. But Keene also said that, by doing this, the burglars also might have just taken away his livelihood, too. 

"To them, its probably easy money to grab and do whatever they want with," Keene said. "But everything that I've got, everything that I own and everything that I'm worth is in that store."

The stakes were high from the get-go. Keene said that he sold his cars in order to start up Keene's Kafe, and that they don't have the financial wiggle room for a situation like this. 

"We're a brand new restaurant, which means that we're pretty much day-to-day," Keene said. "What we sell today is what we have got to resupply inventory tomorrow... I've put everything I've got into this business."

Keene's Kafe is known for their biscuits and burgers, and Keene spoke to 13WMAZ's Central Georgia Eats about how he wanted to "bring good energy" to Macon's culinary scene. They are located on 6369 Thomaston Road.

But in the video on Wednesday, Keene said that the burglary is going to put the future of their business at risk.

"I love cooking food – and I love cooking food for Macon," Keene said in the video, visibly emotional. "But this hurts, and this is going to be tough to bounce back from."

The reaction on social media was immediate. 

"We will support you any way we can!" Bolingbroke Antiques and Mercantile commented. "Together we will pull through!"

As of Wednesday afternoon, Keene's video had been shared more than 40 times. 

A GoFundMe was created by an admin of the Support Macon Restaurants Facebook Page and has already raised more than $800 for Keene and their family.

In an interview with 13WMAZ, Keene said that he found out about the burglary at around 3:50 a.m. after the burglars set off the alarm of the Shell Gas Station next to Keene's restaurant, which he thinks was the intended target.

He got to the store only five minutes later, he said.

"Originally it was like seeing someone abduct your child," Keene said. "This is your purpose, this is your mission, this is your everything – and someone just came by and destroyed it."

The burglars drilled what looked to be a 6-foot by 4-foot hole to get into the building from the back, Keene said and then drilled another smaller 3-foot by 3-foot hole to get into the restaurant.

'It was surreal because it looked like a bank heist," Keene said. "You would expect something like that when robbing a bank, not a gas station and a café. It was a roller coaster of emotions from devastated all the way up to now, hopeful." 

But despite the burglary, Keene said that he is going to try and replace what food he can, so they can open up their doors and start serving again.

Keene told us that they were able to arrange an emergency food delivery, and they are going to try and open their doors tomorrow morning. 

If you had told him that this morning, Keene said, he might not have believed you.

"I'm going to be 100% honest, without the amount of help we received so far, it would have been an impossible feat," Keene said. "The reason why we are able to consider opening tomorrow is that so many people have come out to support us."

The Bibb County Sheriff's Office said in an email to 13WMAZ that investigators are looking into the burglary.

Keene closed off the video with a simple request for viewers: "Pray for us." The community has sent a lot of prayers and support his way since the video was posted.

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