Pride weekend is one of the busiest of the year for many city centre businesses, but for one chip shop owner Saturday morning was spent filing police reports after his shop became the latest to be targeted in Belfast.
Last week a café owner warned the situation was at a “tipping point” after his premises were targeted.
Two more businesses nearby have since been broken into and money stolen.
Gareth McKinstry, who owns Simply Fish & Chips, said it was a costly incident.
“Saturday was Pride day and it was meant to be one of our busiest days of the year and we lost all of our morning trade because we couldn’t open the shop until the police had finished with their investigation,” McKinstry said.
The break-in happened at about 02:00 BST on Saturday.
Belfast is preparing to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city for the all-Ireland music and dance festival, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, which begins on Sunday.
McKinstry said he now needs to work to get the shop ready for the festival.
“I need to get repairs for the window. It’s not what we needed and it’s not what anybody in Belfast needs, but it seems to be becoming a more common thing happening at the moment.”
