Another downtown Merritt store owner was left cleaning up glass after a vandal attacked Davis Leathers and More last Thursday.
This makes it the third time the business has been targeted in the last six months.
Store owner Debbie Davis said many downtown businesses are considering closing due to the seemingly endless number of broken windows in the area – approximately eight have been reported in the last several months.
“A lot of business owners are saying, ‘Do we even want to do this anymore?” she said. “We need to do something.”
Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore, said police will have a photo of the suspect after they review the store’s surveillance tape.
“A patron from the Coldwater bar witnessed a tall [person] on a bike smash the window and ride away,” she stated in a press release. “Video surveillance from the store shows the suspect wearing a white puffy jacket and a hat with a pink rim.”
Dunsmore didn’t return Herald phone calls to comment further on the string of attacks downtown.
Davis said she’d like to see police patrol the area more often.
At one time, police had security cameras operating on the street, but those haven’t been working for several months, Davis said.
“When my door was broken, police said they weren’t going to worry about the security cameras outside, Davis said.
In the meantime, the business owner said she will likely install metal screening to divert any object directed at her windows.
“It’s not even funny anymore,” Davis went on. “I understand that it happens, but three windows in six months is not funny. It P’s me off.”
The suspect got away with a necklace valued at $15.
“You could see him stalking out front there on his bike,” she said before pointing to a woman’s hat on her store’s floor. “That’s the pretty hat he was wearing and we actually found it [near Pharmasave].”
Davis lives in the same building as the store and was able to react to the broken glass and the alarm right away.
“But he was already shooting off on his bike down the other way and nobody could catch up to him,” she said.
The first two times a window was broken was at the front door, a cheaper window because of its size. However, the glass still cost around $300 to replace.
The store’s larger window has lettering, which Davis said costs approximately $300 and replacement could be around $600.
In October, after the first theft, the burglar stole approximately $100 worth of bongs. The thief in March’s burglary couldn’t enter through the broken glass because Davis had replaced the window with wired glass.
