Along a quiet stretch of Toronto’s Roncesvalles Avenue, north of Queen Street, the windows of a popular flower shop called Willem and Jools are boarded up with wood.
The owner, who only wants to be known by her first name, Joanne, is fearful and disheartened after her shop was vandalized early Tuesday morning, the fourth incident of vandalism this year.
Global News has agreed not to include Joanne’s last name due to safety concerns.
Surveillance video obtained by Global News shows a person wearing a black hoodie and black jeans walking up to the florist just before 3 a.m. on July 4 and going out of frame before a smashing sound can be heard. A second later, the suspect can be seen throwing something at a window in front of the camera and the glass shatters. The perpetrator then runs off.
A second video shows a vehicle that appears to be an SUV backing up down Galley Avenue, a one-way street that runs east off Roncesvalles Avenue.
Joanne tells Global News that just two days before this latest act of violence, the window, which looks onto Roncesvalles Avenue, that she had ordered after the last act of vandalism was finally installed.
“I had been waiting for a very expensive window and they put it in four days ago, and they smashed it two days ago.”
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The first time vandals broke her window was just days before Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest days of the year for florists.
Joanne says three weeks prior to that, someone spray-painted her entire shop in white and days before that, someone left black graffiti on the logo of her store. She believes it’s targeted and escalating and is hopeful police can catch the culprit before it happens again.
“At this point, I don’t know what to think. It’s obviously targeted. I have no theories and I just want to run a business,” Joanne adds, thanking the community for supporting her. One family even donated a Ring camera system because after the February incident, she didn’t have adequate surveillance video.
Police confirm they are investigating the vandalism but so far, they’ve made no arrests.
Neighbouring business owner Giada Howell says she feels sorry for Joanne.
“I feel so bad for her. She’s been going through this for the last four, five months.”
Howell, who owns Chroma Hair Shop, is thankful she’s never been victimized by vandalism but says something strange happened earlier this year. She arrived one morning to find a note on her lock that read “dirt in keyhole.” Someone had put dirt in the keyhole of her front door and a number of other businesses along Roncesvalles Avenue.
“There was a bunch of soil in the keyhole and nobody was able to enter or access their business,” Howell said.
Joanne confirms she, too, found soil in the keyhole of the flower shop but managed to clean it out with water. It’s unclear if that act of mischief is related to the ongoing vandalism at Willem and Jools.
A GoFundMe campaign has now been started to help Willem and Jools survive the repeated vandalism. In the description of the fundraiser, Joanne writes, “I have never asked for charity in my whole life,” explaining that dozens and dozens of people on Facebook groups suggested she start a crowdfunding campaign.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect is asked to call Toronto police or Crime Stoppers.
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