Caught On Video: Market's Priceless Family Cookbooks Stolen In Safe Heist

GLENDALE (CBSLA.com) — A safe containing $100,000 in cash and valuables was taken from a Glendale market and catering business, but the owners are more concerned about two cookbooks that were inside.

The Novshadyan family, which owns Nova Market & Catering, 901 W. Glenoaks Blvd., in Glendale, discovered Wednesday morning that their market had been burglarized overnight.

Surveillance video shows three burglars breaking in, raiding the registers, kicking down a backroom door and leaving with the safe – all within two minutes.

"The speed at which they opened the bolted doors, and kicked down the door, and dragged the safe out, it was kind of unreal," Annie Novshadyan said. "It felt like I was watching a movie, except it was happening right here in our store."

When Adrine Novshadyan found out about the burglary, her first thought was for her family's cookbooks, rather than the $100,000 in cash, investments, gold and jewelry that were also kept in the safe. The cookbooks had contained recipes passed down through the generations, and was the foundation of the Novshadyans' business.

"I didn't think there was anywhere safer than the safe" for those cookbooks, she said.

"I use them to make a living," Adrine Novshadyan said. "So they're everything."

One of the cookbooks has a brown cover with an cartoon chef on the front, while the second has a green-and-white striped cover with a pink daisy. The Novshadyan family says they are offering a reward for the return of these cookbooks.