Mo. coffee shop burglarized hours before grand opening

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) -- Hours before the grand opening of a suburban Kansas City coffee shop this week, a thief smashed the front door, stole a safe and emptied the cash register.

The three sisters who own the Lee's Summit Coffee Company say they worked all summer getting ready to open for business, only to suffer a $2,200 loss before the doors opened.

But Jesi DeMeire, Callie Hanson and Erin Parks opened anyway. As coffee flowed, a calculator temporarily replaced the cracked cash register and the women did the best they could to make change.

Parks said the episode adds "an interesting twist in the story -- but not the end."

The trio this winter plans to open Cafe Auplay, a shop where parents can drink coffee while their children use educational resources.

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Information from: KSHB-TV, http://www.kshb.com