The owners and staff at CVI Restaurant & Lounge feel violated and disheartened after a break-in at the business early in the morning on July 15 that saw more than $5,000 of its inventory stolen.
Owner Bonnie Park said she and her staff have lost a sense of safety in a place they pour their hearts into every day.
Park said that at about 3 a.m. on Tuesday, a thief, or thieves, broke into the business through an elevated patio door under cover of darkness and she figures they had to spend about an hour going through the lounge where they took all the premium liquor, among other items.
But she said what鈥檚 most disturbing to her is that the culprits obviously knew the layout of the business and had studied it for some time in order to conduct the break-in so methodically in the darkness.
鈥淚t鈥檚 frightening to know that someone was watching us so closely,鈥� Park said. 鈥淭he business is in the same building as the CVI Best Western Hotel that has staff on duty 24/7, but at that time of night, it鈥檚 only front desk staff that鈥檚 on duty and they just do some periodic security rounds of the building. We figure that this is wedding season and that could be the reason why they targeted the premium liquor.鈥�
Park said this is the first time she has had a break-in since she took over operations at CVI Restaurant & Lounge four years ago.
She said she has no idea who did it.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at adding motion detectors, but cameras might not work well as this break-in was done in darkness, and if they were wearing masks, you couldn鈥檛 see who they were anyway,鈥� Park said.
鈥淲e鈥檒l also be putting more locks on the patio door where they got in. We鈥檝e reported the break-in to the RCMP and filed our insurance claim, but we also wanted to share what happened; not to dwell on it, but to shed light on how much actions like this affect small, local businesses. There seems to be lots of criminality in this community these days.鈥�
Park said CVI Restaurant & Lounge opened its doors as usual the day after the break-in, and she and her staff are bruised, but not broken, as a result of the incident.
鈥淲e want to thank our amazing team and community members who stepped in so quickly to help us secure our space,鈥� she said. 鈥淭heir kindness reminded us of why we keep going.鈥�
