A bakery and coffee shop in Kelowna was damaged on Thursday morning when a man tried to throw a chair through one of its storefront windows.
The incident was caught on security camera. At the time, there were a handful of customers inside Bliss Bakery on Ellis Street.
“I didn’t know if he was going to come in, but I’m glad he ran away and didn’t come in,” employee Taylor Dubois told Global News.
When asked if she was nervous, Dubois answered “yeah, definitely.”
In the video a man wearing blue jeans and a black jacket can be seen walking past the coffee shop, which had outdoor tables and chairs on the sidewalk. In the video, the man grabbed one of the chairs, walked a few feet, then tried throwing it through a window.
His first attempt failed, with the chair bouncing off the window’s frame, though the loud bang caught the attention of customers and employees inside. The man grabbed the chair again, walked a few more feet and threw it a second time, with the chair busting a different window and sending shards of glass inside the coffee shop. He then walked away.
“The lady who was sitting there (behind the first throw) really could have been . . . she could have been killed or at least very, very seriously hurt because of the force he threw that chair,” said owner Darci Yeo.
WATCH (Aired Jan. 7, 2019): Vandalism spree in downtown Kelowna
Darci and Barry Yeo said while this has been the most violent incident, it’s one of many they’re dealing with lately as more people come in and disrupt business.
“Being abusive to staff, are swearing at staff, they’re stealing things,” Darci Yeo said. “People are coming in and they’re asking for free coffee and we’re saying, ‘I’m sorry, but, no, we don’t give out free coffee.’ And then people become really agitated.”
A few doors down at the Chaibaba tea store, the owner said she’s had to take action to protect customers and staff.
“We’ve had to lock the door a few times when people are outside because they’ve already kind of started acting a little more violent, but they haven’t come in,” Crystal Russell said. “We lock the customers in, we lock the doors, just to keep everyone safe.”
The increase in these incidents is being linked by many to the opening of a nearby homeless warming centre.
“Around 7:30, 8 o’clock in the morning, they close the doors and shuffle everyone out. And immediately they are looking for places to get warm, so they come in here to get warm, and some of them get into trouble, some of them push it a little too much,” Barry Yeo said.
The warming centre, which operates out of the old food bank location, is run by the John Howard Society. By the time of publication, the organization had not returned calls about the incident.
Barry and Darci Yeo figure they’re about $1,000 out of pocket to replace the window.
They’re calling for more police patrols in the area and for people to simply not put up with it anymore.
“There seems to be almost an acceptance that this is the new norm, but I don’t think that we should. This is not normal,” Barry Yeo said. “We want other businesses and other people in the downtown area to be aware of this issue and not to tolerate it. It’s not OK.”
According to the owners of Bliss Bakery, police arrested a suspect in the window smashing case a short time later.
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