St. Paul restaurant burglarized by former employee

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - Since she bought her cafe in St. Paul five years ago, Sandra Weise has tried to help people turn their lives around by giving them a job.

But now she feels burned after one of her employees betrayed her trust.

As a former social worker, Weise believes everyone deserves a second chance.

But she's having second thoughts after one of her former employees at The Finnish Bistro took advantage of her helping hand.

"Devastating. The most devastating moment of my career," Weise said.

Weise says she fired her employee of about a year, Brandon Abrams back in August, after he started behaving erratically and showing up late for shifts.

But the next day, surveillance cameras caught him using his employee keys to break into the cafe after hours and make off with a couple of thousand dollars.

"And I think I was more hurt than anything," Weise said. "The money that's easy. Nothing was damaged it was hard to figure out what happened because it was an inside job."

Police arrested Abrams and prosecutors eventually charged him with burglary.

But even though he has a history of violent crime, including two convictions for aggravated robbery, Weise says the judge on the case released him without bail until his next court appearance.

"It's a shame for hard working people like me who do everything right," said Weise. "Do the best. Try to help. Try to give back. Who protects me?"

Now Weise says she is worried about her safety and the safety of her employees and she hopes Abrams has finally run out of chances.

"I don't disagree with second chances. 17 chances is too much. It's enough," Weise said.

Weise says she won't hire any more second chance employees for a while, if ever again.

In the meantime, Abrams is scheduled to be back in court next month.