Multiple small businesses in Steamboat Springs have been broken into and burglarized since the beginning of September, with business owners and police suspecting the break-ins are connected.

Owners of the affected businesses, including Back Door Grill and the downtown location for Big Iron Coffee Co., said the burglaries were not detrimental to their bottom lines — but were hurtful and have made them keep their guard up.

“Honestly, it really sucks being treated that way,” said Bowen Rodkey, owner of Big Iron Coffee Co., one of the affected businesses. “Like, 250 bucks isn’t going to sink our business or anything like that … but it’s a tough enough time for small businesses anyway, even when things are going well.”

The burglars stole around $250 from Big Iron and around $400 and bottles of liquor from Back Door.

The Big Iron and Back Door break-ins occurred in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, after the businesses were closed. No employees were in the businesses at the time of the break-ins and there were no damages to the buildings, according to both business owners.

“There’s something common here,” said David Eliason, the owner of Back Door Grill. “We feel that it might be ex-employees, or something like that.”

Eliason added that the burglars entered the restaurant by removing an air conditioning unit in a window, giving them access to the ground-level dining room. Motion sensors in the dining room were not working at the time of the break-in.

Because the motion sensors were not working, alarms were not triggered and allowed the burglars to leave the restaurant without police knowing, said Eliason.

“(Surveillance footage) shows them trying to enter the building from a number of different spots,” Eliason continued. “They ended up accessing (the building) from one of the spots … They would have got caught if they would have opened another window or door because of the motion detectors.”

Rodkey said Big Iron experienced a similair break-in with no forced entry. According to Rodkey, the burglars simply opened the front door to the building with a key, then locked up when they left.

“This person either had a key or knew the code to the lock box that has a key that only our employees know how to get into.”

“They left a bunch of money behind,” Rodkey added. “So they were very hasty and just kind of grabbed and dashed.”

Both owners said they have hunches about who broke into the businesses, but no arrests have been made, according to Steamboat Springs Police Chief Mark Beckett.

“Our detectives are still working it,” Beckett said Tuesday. “There’s elements of this that are both suspicious and that we think may be related, but we really can’t talk much about it yet because we haven’t gotten far enough along in the investigation.”

“The very fishy thing is that our door was unlocked and then relocked,” said Rodkey. “Somebody who knew how to get in was at least involved, even if they weren’t the person who actually did it.”

Both Rodkey and Eliason don’t suspect that the burglars knew that the surveillance cameras and motion detectors were not working, and they believe it was just a coincidence.

“Security camera management can be a pain in the butt,” Rodkey added.

As the investigation continues, Rodkey and Eliason said they continue to hope that justice will be served. They both added that they will now be more careful about who they choose to trust.

“We know who they are, and we’re going to make sure that the police have them in custody,” Eliason said. “This town is too small. You don’t mess with people, and we all have lots of friends here.”