Home Owners helping homeowners is the theme of Home Hardware but for West Kelowna's Home Hardware owner Steve Corothers, It’s become thieves helping themselves.
Since the middle of December, the back compound of the store has been broken into five times.
“We’ve never seen that many, maybe in a whole year,” according to Corothers.
From patio sets to barbeques, it has cost him over $5,000 in stolen goods and damage to the property. Although investigations continue on Kijiji, Castanet and other known sales websites, none of the items have been located yet.
They will have short-term patrols around the store but a shortage in police is an ongoing issue that West Kelowna council is attempting to address.
Despite security cameras, motion sensors and police presence, the thefts continue to rise in the area. Corothers says this reflects a larger problem in West Kelowna.
“There are people that are desperate, which is a really sad situation.”
“As much as we’ve got people praying for us, we are also praying for people that’re in such a terrible situation that they have to resort to these kinds of acts, to do whatever it is they need to do to live, to feed an addiction, to make a living from crime or whatever it is,” said Corothers.
He hopes new measures will deter future robberies and encourages people to contribute to programs aimed at helping at risk people in Kelowna.