Fatso’s Works to Recover from Monday Night Burglary

Fatso’s in Oak Lawn reopened Wednesday following a burglary Monday night. Owner Pete Vithoulkas says burglars broke the drive-thru windows on both sides of the restaurant, knocked the order monitors onto the floor and stole approximately $1600 total from the register and from a safe in the back office.

Although the restaurant is equipped with an alarm system, Vithoulkas says the alarm didn’t go off. He is uncertain whether the restaurant had power when it was ransacked, but says this could be a factor in the alarm’s ineffectiveness.

Read more about the burglary here.

“I feel terrible, but what are you gonna do?” Vithoulkas says.

Vithoulkas says he has appreciated the strong community response. More than 60 commenters have expressed their distress about the burglary on Fatso’s Facebook page. Several of these commenters also said they would be sure to eat at Fatso’s when it reopened on Wednesday.

Vithoulkas says he hopes the police can find the culprits, but he also says he hopes police will patrol the surrounding area more at night, particularly the park on McVicker Avenue, which is open until 10 p.m.

“Most every night there’s a lot of punks there,” he says, “A lot of kids that shouldn’t be there.

“About a month and a half ago, the kids they were throwing sticks and stuff and … one of my girls called the police. By the time they got here, they’re long gone.”

Vithoulkas is currently uncertain about how much Fatso’s will recover from insurance, but he is grateful for the recovery that the community is helping Fatso’s make.