When Mike Behiel's business was broken into in March, he bought two safes, reinforced the windows and installed security cameras. More than $50,000 worth of cell phones and precious metals had been stolen and he wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again.
Nine months later, it did.
"When I got the safe I thought that was the end of it," he said.
In the early morning of Dec. 3 Behiel's business, Hometown Cellular, was robbed for the second time in less than a year. The financial hit wasn't as great this time - about $10,000 - but there was more damage to the store. After prying open the front door with a crowbar, the robbers smashed the glass-plated door and did their best to get into the safe. (In addition to operating a Telus outlet, Behiel also deals coins and bullion and offers tax services.)
The two robberies had different targets, according to Behiel.
"The police felt they came for the phones the first time," he said. "Apparently you can resell them in the States for about 80 per cent of the retail price."
The morning after the robbery Behiel was vacuuming up stray pieces of glass while others swept up the bigger pieces that crunched under every footstep. An RCMP officer assessed the damage in the back, where the robbers did their best to trash the place.
The large safe did its part in keeping the robbers away from the most valuable merchandise, even though the small safe was all but destroyed. Unfortunately, a technical problem meant the security cameras were on the fritz.
"My computer had been down since about October and the cameras run through the computer," Behiel said. "So there's no video."
Hometown Cellular is right across the street from several houses, but it doesn't seem like anyone heard or saw very much.
"Someone noted a vehicle idling in front of the building about 5 a.m., but didn't think anything of it," Behiel said.
He thinks the same person (or people) are behind both incidents, but so far there are no major leads. The break-in from March remains unsolved as well.
"It's definitely something to look at when a business is hit twice; is it possible the same people are behind both?" said Cpl. Randy Wittig of the Humboldt RCMP. "Right away you think, they were hit not that long ago, and you wonder if it's the same guys. That's just an automatic reaction."
Even with that sort of reaction it's important for officers not to assume anything and Wittig said there are steps that have to be taken at the beginning of any investigation to make sure false assumptions aren't being made. Given that both break-ins remain cold cases anything is possible, though Behiel suspects the robbers are repeat customers of the wrong type.
Wittig said it's relatively common for repeat break and enters from the same source in smaller communities, though he couldn't say exactly how common and isn't investigating this particular case.
Being robbed once can be devastating to any business; being robbed twice within a year of opening can be fatal.
"Doing the numbers when you're deep in the red for the year, I've asked myself if it pays to do this," Behiel said.
Even with all the challenges, Behiel isn't going anywhere.
"All we can do is clean up and keep going," he said.
