Over $60,000 in theft, damage push back reopening of former Walt’s restaurant
A restaurateur who bought the diner that once housed the burger restaurant Walt’s Klassics in west Wichita said he faces a setback on reopening the diner after thieves stole three industrial air conditioning units worth $60,000.
Alex Eftekhar, owner of Station 8 BBQ near Old Town, woke up to a call early Friday from a friend. Someone had stolen the AC rooftop units that were going to be installed on the diner that now sits directly across the street from Station 8 at Third Street and Wabash.
The units had been sitting on a trailer at a fenced car lot a block away at Second Street and Wabash. Eftekhar said they were covered with a tarp. He thinks the theft happened sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. when someone used a truck to take the gate down.
“[They] ripped the whole fence down and just drove away with them,” Eftekhar said. “I mean, took the whole trailer they were on, took my hood exhaust, took my makeup air vent... it’s just unreal.”
Just a week before, in a separate incident, someone had stolen materials off the diner.
“They ripped off a brand new electric meter that was on the back of the diner, ripped all the copper out of it, cut all the connections out of it and tried to pull some of the service wire through the wall even,” Eftekhar told an Eagle reporter.
Cost estimates for the stolen items and damage include $60,000 for the AC units, $5,000 for the trailer they were on, $1,000 for the ripped electrical wires and $4,000 to $5,000 for the car lot fence, according to Eftekhar.
The trailer belonged to their welder.
“It was a heavy rolling steel gate that was cemented in the ground that they managed to rip down,” Eftekhar said. “I’m never going to get these back. I guarantee you they’re [AC units] stripped already but I’d love for these people to get caught so it doesn’t happen to someone else.”
A police report has been filed and Eftekhar says the incident will not deter him.
“I’m not backing down from it,” Eftekhar said. “It’s just going to put a hindrance on how long it takes to complete everything and financially it’s a pretty bad setback.”
Eftekhar bought the 2,135-square-foot modular Starlite diner in July 2022 before it was set to go to auction. He plans to turn the building into a breakfast, lunch and brunch place that will close at 2 p.m., The Eagle previously reported.
Eftekhar said he hasn’t decided on a new name yet. He had plans to open the diner by the end of 2023 at the latest.
“It’ll be done and open someday,” he said. “It would be great if this kind of stuff would stop happening along the way.”