StarkFresh grocery store in Canton closes after break-in, theft

CANTON ‒ Police have charged a suspect in the break-in at the nonprofit StarkFresh grocery store that happened early Tuesday morning.

Authorities were dispatched to the store at 321 Cherry Ave. NE at 4:50 a.m. after staff, who were upstairs, reported hearing glass break and said they could hear someone in the store.

An officer arrived to find the front door broken and glass shattered. The cash register was on the floor. Other items were scattered about. Roughly $500 was missing from the cash register.

Police have charged a 42-year-old homeless man.

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"Hearing the sound of broken glass and seeing video footage of someone actively robbing the Canton StarkFresh grocery store while it was closed wasn't how we planned to have our day start out today," Tom Phillips, executive director, wrote on Facebook.

Next came the tasks of assesssing the damage, taking inventory of what was taken and broken, filing police reports, downloading video to share with the police, sweeping up glass and boarding up the doorway.

But instead of being sad or angry about what happened, in those morning moments when the city was still largely asleep, Phillips looked up and photographed a blue sky decorated with clouds that appeared to be pale pink.

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"The sky decided to give us a beautiful gift and remind us that things can be replaced and fixed and the work we do here at StarkFresh has meaning and worth," he wrote.

Phillips apologized for the inconvenience of the Canton store's Tuesday closing. He said they hope to be open Wednesday.

The Alliance location remains open. It is inside The Commons at 405 S. Linden Ave.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: StarkFresh store in Canton closed due to break-in, theft