SEATTLE — “It keeps me up at night… that’s for sure.”
Brian Shook, owner of Five Corners Hardware in Queen Anne, says would-be thieves have repeatedly targeted his store – at least four times in the past three weeks.
“Broken the door at least four times, busted the lock every single time, broke three panes of glass,” said Shook.
They even started a small fire during an attempted break-in over the weekend, trying to torch their way through a window.
When that didn’t work, they threw some liquid on the fire to stop it – and that while busting the door leading to four small apartments above the store.
“Have to upgrade things now too, so it’s quite a big expense for a small store like us,” said Shook.
But he’s not alone.
Restaurant owner Linda Hegg at nearby Tenth West says it appeared a crowbar was used to break in overnight.
“They took everything out of these file cabinets, just throwing it on the floor,” said Hegg.
Hegg says thieves stole a few dollars and her checkbook.
Meanwhile, Shook is hoping that sharing surveillance video of the vandals and their black Subaru will lead to arrests.
“We have a couple of customers who think they recognize some of the people, but nothing definitive yet,” Shook said.
SPD has not confirmed whether the cases are connected and tell KIRO 7 they do not have any hard leads.