The theft happened just before 11:30 p.m. Sunday at Dalton's Cafe located on the 9500 block of Valley View Street. The business was closed at the time.
"We received a call that the motion sensors had gone off and that there was movement inside the business," said Dalton Raynor, the son of the restaurant's owner. "I headed over and saw the front door was broken and called the police."
Dalton's Cafe has been around for almost two decades. Many of the responding Cypress police officers knew the business well.
"It's a local establishment. It's been here for about 17 years," said Cypress police Sgt. Robert Cote.
When police searched the restaurant they discovered that a safe had been stolen out of the back office.
"They seemed to know where they were going and got done quickly, but we've never had anything like this happen before," said Raynor.
"They didn't take the change on top of the safe or the change that was in the cash register. They just put that on the floor and carried the safe out," said Dalton's Cafe owner Marlene Raynor. "The safe must weigh 180 to 200 pounds so it had to have been two people."
The safe had just over $1,000 in it. Marlene Raynor says she believes the burglars were probably expecting to find more because banks aren't open on Sunday to deposit cash from the weekend.
"I don't know if they thought they were getting thousands, but they got ones, fives and quarters," she said.
Two suspects were seen fleeing the area. A witness described them as black men, approximately 20 to 25 years old, wearing all black clothing including hooded sweatshirts. Police say the suspects were seen heading northbound on Valley View Street in an older brown Honda Civic hatchback with an unknown license plate number.
Anyone with information on this case was asked to contact Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-847-6227.
