A Vancouver business is trying to bring awareness to the plight of downtown shop owners and perhaps encourage others to increase their security after its employees had their belongings stolen from its locker room.
Surveillance video of Zaatar w Zeit’s back room on Monday morning around 8:45 a.m. shows a man dressed in a black hat and jacket, green pants and white sneakers.
He pauses briefly to peer around the corner before casually walking towards the employee lockers, checking into rooms and over his shoulder as he walks. He then proceeds to rifle through and take two bags and a jacket before making a hurried exit.
This isn’t the first time the business has had to deal with theft, with other videos showing people walking in and attempting to steal items before being confronted by staff and fleeing or becoming violent.
Zaatar w Zeit’s director Joanne Zarife says the business experienced some level of crime from when it opened in 2019, but saw a sharp decline late last year. However, a few months ago, incidents began to rise.
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“It’s horrible,” she said.
“We already have to deal with increasing wages, increasing taxes, and now we have to deal with safety and recruiting employees and make sure you’re going to be safe here.”
She says last year staff were scared to come to work after a man was stabbed to death by a stranger at the Starbucks next door, but this is the first time her employees have been robbed. She points to homelessness as a main issue.
“We want people to feel safe when they enter here. It’s like their home and now they’re entering our home and they’re destroying our home and they’re affecting the employees. It affects mental health. It affects everything.”
The BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association says hospitality businesses are already struggling to keep staff while facing increased costs.
“This does not help us at a time when we’re trying to recruit and keep people in our restaurants. This stuff kind of scares them away a little bit,” BCRFA president and CEO Ian Tostenson said, adding crime and homelessness are the biggest issues to his members.
“Crime keeps our staff nervous. Crime keeps people away and homelessness does the same thing.”
Tostenson believes both issues will feature prominently in this year’s upcoming provincial election.
Back at Zaatar w Zeit, police are investigating this latest theft, but no arrests have been made. Zarife believes it’s unlikely the person responsible will be caught or face consequences.
She says while the theft and vandalism aren’t pushing her to financial ruin, it’s still taking its toll.
“I want to expand. I want to open more locations. I’m not looking into downtown anymore,” she said.
“I’m looking outside of downtown because it’s expensive and you have the homeless… The rent is not really justified here.”
For now, she has added an extra lock to her back door, changed her store’s hours to close earlier and made sure two people are always on staff at all times, especially during closing time.