Store owner says break-in just adds to COVID woes

When Barb Smith’s phone rang early Saturday morning, city police had news for her. It was, more or less, a “bad news, good news” situation.

The bad news was someone had broken into her Treasures and Memories store in the Brookdale Plaza on Chemong Road, leaving a lot of damage and mess. The good news was police already had a suspect in custody.

But on a balance of scale, the bad news outweighed anything good.

For years, Smith was the manager of Things Remembered, a gift shop and engraving outlet that had been located in the Lansdowne Place mall. When the company decided to shutter its Canadian outlets about two years ago, she bought the equipment and opened her own place in the Brookdale Plaza.

The pandemic happened just months later and only added to the hurdles of trying to get a new business off the ground.

So far, she says, the business has been able to survive. But the phone call early Saturday morning was not something she needed. “We got the call at 4:26 a.m. … I will never forget that time,” she said.

An alarm had been triggered and when the company couldn’t reach the landlord, they contacted police.

Smith says police told her they had a constable in the area who was able to get to the scene quickly.

They told her a suspect had been located in the parking lot, allegedly carrying merchandise from her store.

“When we got there, we arrived to a mess and destruction and devastation,” she said.

Someone used a rock to break the front window, then pushed aside a display case to get in, police investigators determined.

Much of what was on the display case was broken when it toppled. Security camera footage appears to show a man smashing cases inside and stuffing merchandise in his pants, Smith said.

“He proceeded to loot several areas of the store. He then proceeded to our Zippo display stand, punching and kicking it and finally lifting it over head and smashing it on the floor, damaging and destroying more merchandise and fixtures in the process. He filled his pants with Zippos and a few other items and left.”

She’s compiling a list of what was broken or missing. It’s required by police to make an application for restitution or reparations from anyone convicted in the crime. But she’s not holding out much hope that she will see any of that compensation.

Police told her getting anything is unlikely “because the guy has nothing.”

She also doubts insurance will cover her expenses. “None of this will be covered by insurance, due to an oversight on my part in failing to update some information.”

She has started a GoFundMe account hoping the community might be willing to help her back on her feet, and already she’s seen some local support from customers. A few people who have heard of her ordeal have reached out with business orders in the past few days specifically to help.

“Our community is so supportive and helpful to local small businesses,” Smith said.

“It’s what’s allowed us to survive through the pandemic.”