In one month, the Breda pub of entrepreneur Johan de Vos has turned into a target three times. At the end of December there were several explosions at his café Boerke Verschuren on the Ginnekenmarkt. Then on Friday an attempt was made to start a fire with a Molotov cocktail and it happened again on Sunday. De Vos understands that this raises people’s eyebrows. “But I don’t know what it is either.”
An attempt was made to start a fire on the side of café Boerke Verschuren on the Ginnekenmarkt in Breda on Sunday morning. Several windows were destroyed, but no fire broke out. According to the police, it is a possible Molotov cocktail. De Vos is done with it. “I’m a big guy, but this does something to you.”
An 18-year-old man from Breda has been arrested. What his role is is now being examined.
Johan de Vos is a well-known entrepreneur. In addition to being the owner of the café, he is also chairman of Koninklijke Horeca Breda. “I didn’t start a pub to come here every two weeks to tell you that the windows are broken. That doesn’t make me very happy.”
He has no idea who is behind all the recent misery. “But I’m glad that the police have now caught someone. Hopefully that will bring more clarity to this story.”
The owner does not yet know how and what exactly the arrested 18-year-old is involved in. However, he says he does not believe it is a coincidence. “I’ll be the last to say that. This is really something of late. I have been an entrepreneur here for fourteen years. It is not that it was hit time after time during that period.”
De Vos does understand that recent events ‘raise everyone’s eyebrows’. “And also with me. I understand why people say: ‘Ooh, again?’ But I don’t know what it is either.”
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According to De Vos, ‘of course not everyone is his best friend’. “But we are not known as a café where very strange types come. I really have no idea what’s going on here. That’s what makes it so difficult. I hope that the police will move forward in this whole story with this arrest.”
As a person, he is touched by what has happened at his pub recently. “I have people working here. This feels like a family. It also does something to them. That’s not fun.” De Vos calls the glass damage particularly annoying, “but luckily we have insurance for that,” says the owner.
For the time being, no people are staying away from the café, says De Vos. “We’ll just continue where we left off. If it were unsafe here I wouldn’t open. I still feel safe inside and outside the café.”