ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An unusual break-in took place at Nick Tahou Hots, but the burglars left empty-handed. The intruders targeted the safe in the owner’s office, using a back staircase to discreetly enter the building.

Alex Tahou, the owner, described the scene:

“We find a perfectly cut floor, they had some kind of a saw and cut the floorboards right out of the second floor, right over the office, removed all the floorboards and that’s where they accessed the building, it just was amazing.”

Despite making a mess of the office and attempting to open the safe, the burglars were unsuccessful. Security cameras did not capture any suspects, leading Tahou to suspect they were familiar with the building’s security measures.

“It was like watching a movie on TV where they’re crawling through the ductwork and opening up the ceiling tiles,” Tahou said. “To make things even stranger when they left, they didn’t just get out the door and go, they put the wood back down almost in place.”

The safe, which Tahou believes was built before he was born, withstood the attempted break-in.

“They couldn’t get into the safe,” he noted. “I just wondered how did they do this because they didn’t set off the alarm.”

Tahou plans to keep the safe and have a locksmith fix and reconfigure it, as it held up well during the incident. Rochester Police are investigating the break-in, but Tahou mentioned that the effort was futile since he doesn’t keep large amounts of cash in the safe.

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