SANTEE, Calif. — It hasn’t been a great year for Maria Dellarsina, the owner of Jimmy’s of Santee, a popular family restaurant on Mission Gorge Road. The restaurant was closed for several months due to the pandemic and in May Dellarsina’s husband and partner passed away.
“It’s absolutely devastating for us with his sickness and dying and all the covid.” She said outside of her restaurant.
But through all of the troubles her and her family have encountered, she’s kept Jimmy’s open and was expecting a big crowd the day after Thanksgiving. But when her staff came to open Friday morning, they got a rude awakening.
“Yesterday morning, somebody broke into the restaurant and did a lot of damage,” she said. “They stole a bunch of stuff, checks, money, food, liquor.”
It wasn’t just the things the thieves took, but the mess they left behind. Along with ransacking the offices, they left the freezers open.
“Everything is spoiled and has to go into the trash. We are supposed to open today when it is the busiest day. And we can’t serve.”
So instead of making money on this day, Dellarsina and her staff are picking up the pieces and she’s left wondering why someone would do this to her restaurant.
“Breaking into somebody’s old business and at this time,” she said tearfully “Especially with a small business and we hurt so much. What is the purpose?”
Though the hits keep coming for Dellarsina, she vows that Jimmy’s will be up and running and hopefully will start feeding hungry customers soon.
“We’re going to get up on our feet again," Dellarsina said. "A lot of devastation for us, but we’ll get up on our feet again.”