Closed Mongolian Restaurant Pillaged, Ransacked

A Mongolian barbecue restaurant open for only one month has been the site of some recent theft and vandalism.

VIP Mongolian Bar and Grill, which touted eastern and central Asian cuisine, shut down around Sept. 12, according information in Oak Forest police reports. In the months and days before it closed, thousand of dollars worth of rented electronic equipment was reported stolen and a group of people who were supposed to be cleaning the building threw a rowdy going-away party.

One report from the Oak Forest Police Department deals with a complaint for a amusement and vending supply company about equipment that had gone missing from the closed restaurant, located at 5233 159th St.

The operation manager for Universal Amusement and Vending told Oak Forest police he had received a call from his corporate office that restaurant had shut down, the report states. He now needed to retrieve equipment supplied to the business, which included a $4,500 dart board, a $3,800 crane machine and $800 stereo speakers. When the manager visited VIP Mongolian on Sept. 13, he discovered that all of the equipment was gone.

Police were unable to find signs of forced entry into the building, the report states.

Also on Sept. 13, the family that owns the location the restaurant owners leased filed a report with police about damage inside the building.

The restaurant floor was "completely covered with beer bottles, glasses" and other broken items, according to the report. Trash had been thrown throughout the business and a fryer was missing from the kitchen.

The 24-year-old Oak Forest man who owns the building with his family told police he had seen people still cleaning up inside the shut-down restaurant at around 10 p.m. on Sept. 12, the report states.

Cleaners were told by the building owner that they had to leave and return later, which the crew said they would do, the report states. When they returned, the landlords found the interior had been wrecked. They believed the people who had been cleaning up had, instead, thrown a party.

No arrests were reported in either incident.