‘It’s getting worse,’ More than 50 windows smashed in Tacoma’s ‘Antique Row’
More than a dozen businesses in Downtown Tacoma are vandalized overnight Saturday.
Police arrested a woman for allegedly smashing 56 windows from Broadway to Market along ‘Antique Row.’ She was booked on charges of Malicious Mischief and Resisting Arrest.
“It happens from time to time but not on this magnitude,” said Alan Gorsuch at Sanford and Son Antiques.
Gorsuch’s shop is one of the 16 businesses hit around 3 a.m. on Saturday.
He says it’s going to cost upwards of $15,000 to fix seven of their damaged windows.
“It’s expensive, again. I replaced that one twice and now this will be the third time,” Gorsuch explained.
He says the most frustrating part is that it keeps on happening.
“It’s getting worse because nothing’s done about it. And we don’t have and police presence in Downtown Tacoma anymore and these people know that so they do whatever they want to do,” Gorsuch added.
It’s a heartbreaking sight for Mitch Barstead, who’s the owner of Mecca Mercantile.
“Ruining people’s businesses that are trying to make money and we have enough obstacles on a daily basis to deal with this,” he said.
Barstead told KIRO 7 that the suspect struck 12 windows at his shop. He said the city offered to board it up at a cost.
“I said, well don’t touch my windows then. I’m not paying the city to board my windows up. We already have enough expenses with things,” Barstead said.
Just a few shops down, surveillance video captured the same woman destroying the storefront at Big Dawg Barbershop.
“This one’s more of the Picasso of the broken ones. We have this crack wrapped around the corner all around the Big Dawg,” owner Alex Verchereau explained.
Verchereau’s shop windows have several cracks and holes that need to be repaired.
“Hopefully the rain doesn’t seep through and maybe we can get a window maybe in the next 6 months,” he said.
Verchereau said it’s hard to see so much destruction in such a short amount of time.
“It was disheartening because we put a lot of effort into our business and unfortunately it seems like we don’t get the respect back from the community or some people in the community,” he said.
He hopes the City of Tacoma can do more to protect these small businesses.
“Maybe we can have some sort of security that’s you know 24/7 or at least through the late nights,” Verchereau said.
