Accused crawfish bandits arrested in pair of burglaries at Baton Rouge store

BATON ROUGE - Police have arrested two men who allegedly broke into a local restaurant and cleared out their crawfish supply.

The Baton Rouge Police Department says Stephen Houk, 65, and Christopher Manuel, 51, are responsible for two break-ins at Capital City Crawfish in recent months. Houk allegedly participated in only the second burglary while Manuel had a hand in both.

"It never happened in six years of being open, and then it's happened twice within a month," owner Will Boutee told WBRZ last week.

Thieves broke into his Government Street business in December and then again last month. They stole live crawfish and anything else they could get their hands on.

"I went in there and looked... The crawfish were gone, they stole ice chests, snow ball machine, tables..." Boutee said.

The last break-in in January wiped out his entire stock of crawfish. Boutee said it was especially tough as a small business owner trying to provide for his family.

Boutee says he's added a high-tech security system, allowing him to watch and record what's going on 24 hours a day.

Both suspects were booked Thursday on charges of simple burglary.