Surveillance video captures man vandalizing Nanaimo, B.C. barbershop

The owner of a well-known Nanaimo, B.C., barbershop is devastated after someone vandalized his shop Wednesday night.

RCMP confirmed they received reports of windows being smashed at That 50s Barbershop just before 10 p.m.

The person who can be seen in the video smashing windows using a bag filled with objects was arrested and then later released, police confirmed.

Owner Dave Lawrence posted about the vandalism on Facebook, saying every part of the shop is an extension of his personality.

“So this was pretty devastating,” he wrote. “Earlier in the evening a kid stopped me and said ‘I really love looking at all the hot wheels in the window when I wait for the bus’. Little did I know in a few hours they would be smashed all over my floor.”

He told Global News on Thursday that he likes being downtown because he does a lot of community work and it’s important to him that work is visible.

However, he said it has not been easy.

“It is tough to have a business downtown, and a small business downtown in general,” he said. “But on top of it, the broken windows, the break-ins and things that just keep happening, sometimes multiple times.”

Lawrence said businesses around his have been broken into multiple times, some as high as six times.

2:08 Province takes heat over repeat violent offenders

He said he would like the city to write more bylaws around drug use and public defecation.

RCMP confirmed the 46-year-old suspect is well-known to police.

Lawrence said the impact of the windows breaking even caused the glass to hit the painted sign, which has been there for 30 years.

“I’m shocked, I was shocked, I didn’t even know what to say,” he added.

The B.C. government formally launched its Repeat Violent Offending Intervention Initiative in an effort to crack down on repeat, violent offenders — a chronic public safety and policing challenge that has increasingly dominated headlines.

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, Premier David Eby, and Attorney General Niki Sharma released details of the 12-hub program in Nanaimo on Wednesday. The initiative was first announced last month and the hubs will be operational in May.

Lawrence said he was grateful his shop neighbours jumped into action to take photos and board up the barbershop as quickly as possible.

“It’s a great community,” he added, but he said seeing the number of people out on the street causing problems is frustrating.

“There is help that could be done for these people and it’s not being done.”