Sunday foot traffic at Franco’s Italian Bistro in Catonsville doesn’t usually compare to that of a lively Friday or Saturday night. But this Sunday the restaurant saw some of its biggest sales, even as some of its systems were down, owner Lou Weinkam said.

The bistro was one of about six businesses on Frederick Road in Catonsville that were burglarized overnight into Sunday. When neighbors heard that Franco’s would still be open for business that day, the community rallied “like crazy,” Weinkam said.

After awaking to find broken windows, stolen cash registers and other property damage, small-business owners are picking up the pieces to move on from what several said is a rare occurrence.

“It’s just a thing that, in our area, these things just don’t happen. So it really caught us off guard,” Weinkam said.

Baltimore County police had not made an arrest as of Monday night. But a Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland post the police shared to their Facebook page features a Silver Honda Civic believed to be involved in the burglaries.

Meanwhile, the business owners — and their customers — are finding ways to help each other.

Weinkam has owned Franco’s since 2019 after purchasing it from a friend, he said. By trade, he’s an attorney specializing in wills and estates, but when the opportunity presented itself, he thought it’d be a good way to build generational wealth for his family.

“We really are stressing that it’s just hurtful to us to put our hearts out and then have that happen,” Weinkam said.

He has eight children, ranging from 22 to 38 years old. Six of them have worked at the restaurant. His wife does some of the bookkeeping, and his dad, a retired attorney, works the bar on Monday nights.

Cameras inside Franco’s did not capture the burglars, Weinkam said.

A couple blocks up, Allison Glascock, owner and operator of Blue Iris Flowers, gave her surveillance footage to police, she said.

A long rectangular piece of plywood covered a storefront window, where two people entered early Sunday morning, she said. They grabbed small amounts of cash and managed to get inside the register that was bolted to the front counter.

“For me personally, this has taken more of an emotional toll ... makes you feel very vulnerable,” Glascock said.

Glascock has owned Blue Iris since 2011 and worked there part-time in the years prior as she studied information systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

In the roughly 15 years she has operated the flower shop, Glascock said she has never had a burglary. Maybe one person shoplifted a bouquet of roses, but that’s it, she said.

Glascock said she is thankful that her refrigeration cases weren’t damaged, especially with Valentine’s Day a month away. In 2017, a fire damaged her store a week before the holiday.

“It’s a shame,” said Glascock, who took to social media to encourage the community to visit affected businesses.

By Monday afternoon, Jack League, a semiretired owner of Sunset Kitchens & Baths on Frederick Road, had a short list of errands.

He’d stop by Franco’s for a pepperoni pizza or an Italian cold cut sub and then head to Blue Iris Flowers to pick up a bouquet for a friend whose mom passed away recently.

“We have to stick together,” said League, who has had the remodeling company for the past 15 years. His business was not affected by the break-ins.

League has moved to Florida, but he comes back often for big projects and certain sales; his son runs day-to-day operations.

The business district felt empty when he arrived over a decade ago, he said, but it has grown.

He said he is worried that if no one is held accountable for the break-ins, it’ll stoke more crime.

For the most part, League said, Catonsville is a safe and close-knit community, but within the past year, he said he has noticed an uptick in crime.

Several days before the break-ins, a woman was shot and injured in the nearby 200 block of Preston Court. In November, a man was shot at an intersection of Frederick Road near a concentration of small businesses.

As League walked to Franco’s for lunch, he pointed to an empty parking lot where summer music festivals bring people out with their lawn chairs and cold beers.

He also admired the two-story building across the street where the Faidley family, known for their crab cakes, is opening The Fishmonger’s Daughter.

“I don’t want to see [Catonsville] go down,” League said. “This is how a community should be.”