Downtown Chilliwack retail store damaged overnight

CHILLIWACK – The owner of a downtown Chilliwack retail store that provides food and other supplies to pensioners and low-income residents says her store was damaged by an unknown suspect overnight.

Brigida Crosbie, owner of Tydel Foods just off Main Street in the downtown core, says a person smashed the front window of her business at 2:53 a.m. early Tuesday morning (July 7).

Suspect in vandalism. (Image Credit: Tydel Foods.)

She says she’s grateful that police caught the person, but it’s just another unanticipated expense for small businesses like hers that are just struggling to keep the lights on and operations going.

“Like countless businesses across Canada, we’re barely holding on. The economy has been incredibly difficult,” Crosbie said. “Every unexpected expense is another burden. Behind every storefront are families, employees, volunteers and people who are simply trying to keep their doors open while continuing to serve their communities.”

Rather than go back to sleep, she said she remained outside her business until the morning hours so that local seniors could access what they needed from Tydel Foods.

“Tonight, instead of sleeping, I’m sitting outside my shop in our truck until morning, keeping watch over what we’ve worked so hard to build. When the sun comes up, I’ll unlock the doors, go inside and make sure the seniors in our program receive the food they depend on.”

Speaking as someone whose business has been vandalized previously, she wonders why the judicial system focuses more on the rights of offenders than the people impacted by criminal acts.

“And while we talk about protecting the rights of the person causing harm, we cannot forget the rights of the victims, the seniors who are afraid, the families who no longer feel safe, the workers cleaning up the damage and the small business owners who wonder if they can survive another month,” Crosbie wrote online.