ENCINITAS, Calif. (KGTV) — Power is back on at dozens of businesses in Encinitas after thieves broke into the building's electrical boxes.
It happened Saturday into Sunday morning at the Kohls shopping center on North El Camino Real.
Paula Pearson is an esthetician at the Phenix Salon Suites. She assumed the power was out due to the storm.
"We just experienced a whole year of this, so to have this happen was quite devastating actually. To know that it was thievery that caused that power outage and every single business, small business was out, all day yesterday and part of today," said Pearson.
The power was restored around eleven Tuesday morning.
"We have twenty suite renters here and our business, and they have full clientele, so you can imagine how many lives that impacted," said Pearson.
The shopping center is home to restaurants, bakeries, a furniture store, a dentist's office, and many other businesses.
"It's not only an inconvenience for us, but for our patients too. They had certain procedures they were excited to get, some people were getting their teeth that day," said Dr. James Snow of Pacific Dental Center.
The thieves cut the locks on four electrical boxes, cut wires, and stole twenty circuit breakers.
"I never knew getting into breaker components where the meters are and stealing breakers was actually a thing that people go and sell," said Dr. Snow.
It's been an unsettling few days for people who work at the shopping center.
Friday night, vandals smashed the windows of three area restaurants.
It's unknown whether there's a connection or whether surveillance cameras captured anything.
Snow wants other business owners to be aware.
"It makes me more angry, concerned that people would do that so brazen and inconvenience a whole shopping center, and if they are going to do that, what else are they going to do," said Snow.
