Cass’s Kitchen broken into, thief steals candy bag

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Cass’s Kitchen was broken into early Wednesday morning, but the thief only got away with one bag of candy.

Cassandra Ross, the owner of Cass’s Kitchen, said the thief gained access just before 2 a.m. by going through the store’s back window, ripping apart the screen and breaking through where the air conditioning was.

She said the thief ran through the store in less than two minutes and exited after checking the tills, presumably scared off by the alarms.

“There’s a few things damaged like the window frame, and the screen is destroyed, but other than that, they were in and out so quickly, there was nothing they could really get into,” Ross said.

The owner isn’t sure how much the damages will cost, but she doesn’t expect it to be expensive.

“We don’t carry cash in the shop, so there was no point, and we don’t have our till in here with us. We make it all disappear every night.”

After chatting with the owner of Baking Me Crazy, which was broken into last week, the pair realized the thief was wearing similar clothing during both break-ins.

The owner of Cass’s Kitchen said the police were excellent and were already at the scene by the time she got her shop from Charlie Lake.

“When I got here, there were five officers on scene. They went in and checked the whole building; they checked all around it,” Ross said.

“The officer came back five times to take pictures and double-check things. They were amazing.”

Ross thinks one of the most significant issues people need to realize is small businesses are the ones who pay the most when thieves and break-ins target them.

“We’re not the ones that have corporate insurance policies or corporate companies that can just replace things quickly,” Ross said.

“A $200 window, door, or screen that can be half a day’s income of the product you’re selling, your profit. Small businesses are already hurting, this is just making it ten times worse.”

According to RCMP, the incident is still under investigation.