PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Businesses and restaurants in Portland continue to deal with widespread vandalism and break-ins as Portland police are spread thin dealing with historic crime.
Nectar Frozen Yogurt Lounge has damaged windows and a window boarded up — a sight we’re getting used to in Portland.
They say this happened Tuesday morning.
Up and down Milwaukie Avenue, windows are boarded up and some owners say they believe their businesses were shot this week, possibly with a bb gun.
“As far as I know, that’s what happened up and down the block. Someone just like drove by I guess,” Nectar Frozen Yogurt Lounge employee Banyan Veloz-Rolph said.
Veloz-Rolph explained “I was just running errands, I wasn’t even in yet and I passed the store was like ‘woah, glass everywhere.’ I was like ‘what’s happening?’ I called my boss immediately, looked around to see if anything was taken.”
Another nearby business, Oodles Toys, said their surveillance cameras caught someone breaking into their store and stealing their till and some Legos on Tuesday as well.
“My burglar alarm went out. I got an alert, I could see my camera. I could see someone, watched him grab the cash drawer. I watched him leave,” Oodles Toys owner Barbara Wright said.
Police responded but didn’t file a report at the owner’s request.
When Wright arrived, she said she realized the alleged burglar got more than she realized.
“I turned the corner and the whole wall of shelves, stuff all over, so he obviously climbed the shelf,” Wright noted.
She says this is their second break-in in a matter of months.
“So, then you have to increase your security, and it’s frustrating because we have to change the locks, do everything we can,” Wright said.
Wright explained “it definitely makes you feel like you’re vulnerable, it’s frustrating and scary.”