Police are trying to identify a man who tried to burn down a Florida family-owned restaurant with a Molotov cocktail in late June.
Surveillance video from June 24 shows a red car pulling up in an alley behind the Broadwalk Restaurant in Hollywood. Once the car comes to a full stop, a man wearing dark clothing gets out, lights a bottle on fire, and throws it toward the back of the business. The arsonist then gets back in his car and takes off.
The restaurant has been here for over two decades and the owner doesn't know why anybody would try to burn it down.
“I was in shock – we’ve been here for 22 years and never had anything like this happen to us," owner Danielle Thomas said. "We’re a well-known family-owned restaurant, we just never had any issues with anybody or anything."
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Fortunately, the restaurant wasn't damaged.
“If the place caught on fire then all my employees would be out of work," Thomas said. "They've been with me for many years, 15 years most of them. And they really don't have anywhere to go, and it would have been very hard for a lot of people."
But there was some damage outside the restaurant.
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“The floor caught on fire, water bucket caught on, a couple of things caught on fire, but thank God the bottle never broke, so it didn’t spread the gasoline, so it eventually went out," Thomas said.
It happened at around 4:45 in the morning in late June, so investigators may be short on witnesses. But detectives have video and froze some images of the man they’re trying to identify and the red Toyota Corolla he was driving.
Thomas asks anybody who recognizes anything to report it to police or Crime Stoppers.
“The car is pretty clear. The picture and the cars are still around so they should be able to catch the car with the driver," she said.
The business only closed for a few hours the morning it happened while investigators did their work. The number to Crime Stoppers is 954-493-TIPS.
