Sweet-tooth bandits

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Burglars ravage Lynn Theatre for sugar high

What’s worse than burglars who break into a movie theater and steal candy?

Picky burglars.

Gonzales police are still investigating a burglary that happened before 5 a.m. Friday at the Lynn Theatre in downtown Gonzales. While no arrests have been made, they do know something about the burglars.

They don’t like Baby Ruth candy bars or Raisinets.

But the thieves weren’t just selective about the kind of candy they wanted, they were also destructive.

After breaking through the glass door at the front of the theater, the burglars ransacked the lobby and concession stand areas, rifled the cash registers, pillaged the ticket booth and then loaded up on all the candy they could carry.

But an inventory of the sweets showed they left the Baby Ruths. Then, apparently, they sorted through their cache as they left the scene and discarded boxes of Raisinets, leaving a trail down the sidewalk along St. Paul Street, which police found later that morning.

Police discovered the break-in early Friday and contacted owners Cliff and Mary Anderson and their daughter Kathy Ann. The Andersons then spent much of Good Friday cleaning up after their inhospitable guests so that they could be ready for the $1 children’s movie they presented that afternoon for the Easter weekend.

But Kathy Ann, who was all smiles to welcome the children to the special screening, looked on the bright side. “It could have been worse,” she admitted.

The thieves reportedly did not damage either the downstairs or upstairs seating areas, limiting their criminal activity to the front of the theater.

Apart from expending considerable elbow grease to get the theater back to the shape they left it Thursday night, the Andersons will have to replace the glass door (which is currently boarded up) and, of course, their stock of sweets.

Except for Baby Ruths.

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