A recent break-and-enter has left two downtown Kelowna business owners feeling vulnerable.
Last Friday, Chris Onyett and Ulf Lonegren, founders of the web design company Roketto, locked up their second floor office on Bernard Avenue.
“We lock all the doors. We go downstairs and make sure the door is locked. We give each other our special handshake and leave for the weekend,” Onyett said.
But little did he know that the office he left Friday night would be drastically different Monday morning.
“I came in Monday morning and I noticed that one of the doors was wide open,” he said. “I had a feeling as soon as I saw. I turned to my left and all our equipment was gone, including computers and drives.”
Two 27″ inch iMac computers, one 24″ inch iMac computer and one Dell laptop were among the items stolen. Other items stolen include keyboards and computer mice.
“I feel pretty violated. We have a lot of personal stuff on our computers. It’s not a good feeling: the thought of someone going through the files,” Onyett said.
Panicked thoughts ran through Lonegren’s head when he got to the office.
“Why? How? How did they get in? How did this happen when we lock up our doors every day before we leave and yet there is no forced entry?” he said.
Lonegren agrees that the break-and-enter has left him feeling vulnerable in his own work space.
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“You just feel violated. You feel unsafe in your own place now all of a sudden, a place where you feel comfortable and you’re used to every day,” he said.
The business partners had re-located to downtown Kelowna from Glenmore in November. The office that was broken into is a temporary space until renovations are completed on their nearby permanent office.
The pair says downtown Kelowna has a different feel than their previous office location.
“I take my dog for a walk downtown in City Park every day and there are a lot of homeless people everywhere down here,” Onyett said.
“We do feel more at risk just walking down the streets. You feel a little more at risk when you get asked for money from homeless people every block you go. It’s a big difference from when we were in Glenmore,” Lonegren said.
Onyett says they did not have insurance, an alarm system or a security camera.
“The alarm system and insurance is all stuff we’ve been putting in place for the new office. We just didn’t want to bother with this place, especially since we were only going to be here for a few weeks,” he said.
“I would say not great planning on our part but really, we weren’t expecting to be here for that long.”
The cost of the stolen items is between $8,000 and $10,000.
Though the pair has since bought new equipment to replace the stolen computers and laptops, Lonegren says the break-and-enter has hurt the company’s bottom line.
“We’re still getting set up to get back to work. It’s basically a week lost.”
Cst. Kris Clark with the Kelowna RCMP says the thieves entered the office through the rear door. He adds that there was no forced entry.
Clark says police do not have suspects and notes that the file has been closed though he adds that RCMP will monitor pawn shops to see if the stolen items surface.
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