Portland bakery burglaries hurt owners 'scraping by'
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Johannah Zuniga's job as the owner of Dream Cakes is bringing dreams of a couple's wedding day to life. Just up the road on NE Sandy, Ainsley Lods runs Doe Donuts, Portland's first vegan donut shop.
But both bakeries were broken into in the past few days by someone who took none of the baked goods, only cash and electronics. Both filed police reports and both shared surveillance footage with KOIN 6 News.
Zuniga, who said her shop "lives, breathes and thinks wedding cakes," told KOIN 6 News she's been thinking about the shattered glass and alarms that went off early Sunday.
"It was on the 5th we got the alarm call from our phone, a phone notification," she said. "You have to get dressed as soon as possible, get down there to kind of see what's happening."
Dream Cakes surveillance video shows a person sneaking around the shop looking for something to take. Zuniga said he took an old iPad.
Lods' shop was not as fortunate when they were also hit on Sunday morning,
"We have a back entrance that he broke the glass door of and popped right in," she said. "Then he had a bag of tools and he kind of knew exactly where he was going."
The thief got away with just less than $1000 in about four minutes.
It was the sixth time Doe Donuts has been broken into.
"Every time you think you kind of got it, like, OK, there's nothing for them to break in, there's no reason for them to smash our glass or break the door," Lods told KOIN 6 News, "someone finds a reason."
Both business owners said they have to pay more than $1000 in door damages but said they're hoping to learn from this and keep serving their customers.
"As the owner, I can take the hit as much as I can, but you know, my employees don't deserve to lose money from someone else's foolishness," Lods said. "We really scrape to get by in the winter so it really throws a wrench in things, for sure."
Zuniga said it's a good reminder to remind people the owners of small businesses are just trying to make it work.
"Especially in our slow season, like January is the worst," she said. "Everybody's on their New Year's resolutions where they're not eating treats or spending money, and then, of course, people are breaking in and we don't even have any money, so I don't even know what they're doing."
Zuniga said she may organize a bake sale to help raise money for the broken door. Lods said she hopes folks will come by and enjoy their sweet and savory vegan donuts.
The investigation continues. Anyone with information is asked to contact Portland police.