Elliot C. Williams
The Anacostia storefronts of Turning Natural and Busboys and Poets both had their windows broken on Monday night and were burglarized.
Jerri Evans, owner of Turning Natural, a juice bar on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, posted about the break-ins on Instagram.
“Last night I was awaken by the store alarm being triggered and the Anacostia storefront being burglarized,” Evans wrote in the post. “It’s frustrating, it’s inconvenient, mostly disappointing … There’s a neighborhood code of ethics that isn’t being honored. We have to take care of each other and it doesn’t look like this. We are all connected.”
Evans didn’t respond to a request for comment. Commenters on her Instagram post expressed disbelief that someone would damage local businesses at a time like this. (Among those who chimed in? Los Angeles Laker and DeMatha High graduate Quinn Cook and D.C. rapper Tabi Bonney.)
Across the street, Busboys and Poets also had its store vandalized, but owner Andy Shallal tells DCist the suspect left with nothing of significance. According to D.C. police reports, security cameras caught a hooded man shattering the window with a rock and running off with an empty cash drawer. The same had happened at Turning Natural just six minutes prior, according to the reports.
Shallal, an artist by trade, decided to paint over the boarded up window with a positive message.
“If there’s any place in the city that speaks to community, that is the place: Anacostia, and wards 7 and 8,” Shallal says. “This speaks to the human spirit, I think, whenever we are found in a situation where we see absolutely no end sight, we try to make the best of it.”
To that end, Shallal says Busboys and Poets has continued hosting community gatherings virtually, with open mics held on Instagram Live. Busboys locations have also started selling pre-mixed cocktails, wine, and beer for take-out and delivery, in accordance with the city’s emergency order.
East of the Anacostia River, communities have been pooling resources to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
“I hope he got what he needed,” Shallal says of the burglar. “It’s unfortunate, but desperate times bring out desperate people.”
