“Very heartbreaking, very disappointing as a business owner. Should we keep the business open?” Haque said. He opened the franchise location in Des Moines on Pacific Highway in 2009. Haque says it’s a popular place for the Highline College students nearby, and things have been good until recently.“For the past six months, it’s getting worse and worse every single day,” said Mohammed Saddique, the district manager for Church’s Chicken.
It’s the second burglary at the restaurant in 10 days. Haque said the damage to the door from the last incident on May 9 had just been fixed, costing him about $12,000. He said because of high insurance deductibles and impacts to their premium, they pay the cost out of pocket instead of filing a claim.In the May 9 incident, video shows a suspect apparently holding a long gun, before two people rummage through the cash registers that were empty except for change.
On top of all that, Church’s Chicken had to remodel after arson in June of 2022. There’s still an official poster from the Arson Alarm Foundation that offers a reward for information. Despite all the recent problems at the chicken shop, the Des Moines police department says burglaries along Pacific Highway are actually down slightly from last year for this time period.“The data just is not proving that crime is up right now for us. It seems pretty consistent,” said Sgt. Scott Oak with Des Moines PD.