Robbers break into Pinewood Coffee Roasters

By Harry Rowe | Staff Writer

Pinewood Coffee Roasters, a well-known coffee joint in Waco, was robbed Monday morning.

Five suspects fled the scene before Chase Maqueda, a Pinewood barista, discovered the damage to the shop.

“I turn right into the courtyard, and there’s shattered glass everywhere on the front of the shop,” Maqueda said.

He rushed to his car and drove to see the Pinewood co-owner John David, commonly known as JD. He told David that he thought the shop had been robbed or was currently being robbed. Maqueda had thought there were people at the scene when he arrived at work at 6:30 a.m. due to a thumping noise he heard inside the shop.

“I’m thinking [at the time] there’s still people in there because it sounds like someone is trying to break something open,” Maqueda said.

They called Waco police, who were soon at the scene. The police led Maqueda and JD into the shop and continued to hear the thumping noise Maqueda had described. They soon found the cause of noise was from the speaker system the robbers had attempted to damage.

“They basically just started pushing things over, like glasses. They tried to push over our record player but it didn’t fall,” Maqueda said.

Maqueda and the police discovered from the surveillance footage that the robbery occurred around 5:10 a.m.

“They basically broke the window, jumped in and were skipping around like they were having fun,” Maqueda said.

Waco Public Information Officer Garen Bynum said the report had yet to be filed as of Monday afternoon.

“What we know is that there were five individuals that were involved, that broke into the business. They did a little bit of damage to my understanding,” Bynum said. “They took a little bit of money out of the register. Not sure on the amount, but the officer that worked the call said it was not a large amount.”

Three individuals entered the building and two were on lookout outside, according to Maqueda.

“One of the guys [on the video] that went inside was smoking … This morning I was looking around for things they may have left …There was a used Black and Mild on the ground where they were standing, so the police took that for D.N.A.” Maqueda said.

Bynum said the police are still working on identifying the suspects. He said if they are charged, they would be charged with burglary of a building.