James David Dickson

The Detroit News

A Detroit institution, the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, was broken into overnight on the city’s east side, police said Tuesday.

The break-in was discovered Tuesday morning when an employee showed up to work and found windows broken at the facility on the 4300 block of Conner, said Officer Nicole Kirkwood of the Detroit Police Department.

The employee went inside and found damage to the window on the side door and to another window, and found the security system ripped off the wall, Kirkwood said.

Marilyn Reyes, an assistant manager at the kitchen who has been with the organization for 24 years, said she and another employee arrived about 5:40 a.m. and noticed a window busted out of a door and at the shack where guards work.

She went inside and reached for the security system, but it wasn’t on the wall. It was on the floor.

Reyes believes that “three to four” new computers, along with a printer, were stolen.

She immediately thought of the food onsite.

“I ran to the freezer to see if anything had been taken, but that lock was still there,” Reyes said.

Breakfast service, which can attract about 300 people to the soup kitchen, still went on as planned despite the incident. The computers are used to offer people Internet access and for computer-skills classes, Reyes said.

No arrests have yet been made. Reyes said it’s the fourth time the location, which opened in 1998, has been robbed.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” Reyes said. “We give people food and clothing and we don’t ask questions.”

jdickson@detroitnews.com