A burglar smashed through the glass door of 7tyone Restaurant & Coffee Bar in Miami Beach early Friday morning, ripped out the cash register drawer and fled within seconds, according to surveillance footage reviewed by the restaurant's owner. Owner Liliana Arguinzones says the break-in happened around 1 a.m. at her restaurant on Normandy Drive, and she did not even learn about it until hours later.
Arguinzones said she found shattered glass by the front door and a brick lying nearby when she returned to the restaurant, located at 1130 Normandy Drive, according to WSVN 7News. She did not discover the break-in herself; a neighboring business called to alert her hours after it happened. Surveillance video reviewed by the station shows a man wearing a hat and covering his face with what appeared to be a rag as he slipped inside and tore the register drawer loose.
“You Broke My Dream, My Safe Place”
The burglary unfolded in a matter of seconds, but its emotional toll has lingered for Arguinzones, who moved to Miami Beach from Venezuela and spent ten years building 7tyone into a spot serving Venezuelan cuisine. She told the station she had never experienced anything like it in the decade she has run the business. “I was looking for a safe place and, after 10 years, this is the first time something like that happened,” she said.
For Arguinzones, the loss goes beyond whatever cash was in the drawer. “It's not about the money. It's about, you broke my dream, my safe place,” she said, per the same report. She described feeling shaken in the aftermath. “I'm very afraid. I'm nervous, I'm sad because that's like my second home,” she said.
A Local 10 report citing the owner put the amount taken from the register at $600, a detail not confirmed in WSVN's reporting on the incident.
Owner Pushes for Darker Streets to Get Brighter
Arguinzones now plans to invest in an upgraded security system for the restaurant and is hoping nearby street lighting gets a second look, saying the area goes too dark after sunset. She also wants business owners along the block to start looking out for one another rather than facing break-ins alone. “The most important thing is that the neighbor business owners know what is going on here in this neighborhood and do something,” she said.
Miami Beach police have opened an investigation into the burglary, the station reported. Anyone with information can contact police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS; tipsters may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
Part of a Pattern of Break-Ins Across South Florida
The 7tyone burglary follows a string of similar smash-and-grab break-ins reported across South Florida businesses in recent months. A Fort Lauderdale dollar store owner described thieves smashing through a glass front door and making off with a cash register in an August break-in reported by Local 10. A Jewish deli in Miami Beach was also hit by a burglar caught on surveillance video late last year, according to a separate Local 10 report.
Miami Beach recorded the highest reported property-crime rate of any city in Florida in 2022, at 8,557 incidents per 100,000 residents, according to FBI data cited by NBC 6 South Florida. That same analysis found larceny was the most common form of property crime statewide that year, at roughly 1,255 incidents per 100,000 people. The data does not establish whether Miami Beach is currently seeing a broader rise in burglaries or whether Friday's break-in fits any larger trend.
Until police identify a suspect, Arguinzones says she is left relying on her own precautions and the goodwill of neighboring shop owners to keep 7tyone safe. For now, the shattered door stands as the clearest reminder of a break-in that, by all accounts, lasted only seconds but shook a decade of feeling secure.
