Downtown Hamilton bar damaged, items stolen during break-in

Someone broke in to North 2nd Tap & Bottle bar through a side window and stole three guitars, an iPad and cash, while causing about $400 damage to the custom-made window.

The break-in at 134 N. 2nd St. happened sometime between noon Sunday and noon Monday.

The good news for owner Dan Connaughton was that while he had to close for a few days, someone started a fundraising campaign that has raised $3,010, which he said is about the amount he said was lost by theft and damage.

“I’ll be up and running by this weekend,” he said. “The window was a custom piece that I had commissioned. That’s really kind of the worst part about it.

“Nothing that we’re not going to be able to recover from, though.”

A positive part of the situation was the GoFundMe response.

“That was a pleasant surprise,” Connaughton said. “One of my friends got that started, unbeknownst to me, and people really were very generous. It’s definitely helpful, especially coming off those two months or so of being closed down.

“I’d been open for a little more than three weeks when that happened.”

Even though he has a patio, “I’m definitely not up to 100 percent operations, but it’s been slow and steady, and just good enough to just kind of pay the bills and take care of what I need to take care of for the time being.”

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