JOYCE — The owner of Joyce’s Blackberry Cafe is so frustrated by break-ins and thefts of donations that she is no longer putting her donation jar out.
In two of the three break-ins at the restaurant at 1350 Joyce Piedmont Road throughout the past two years — the most recent of which was last week — thieves stole all the money in her donation jar, said owner Roxanne Olsen.
There was $186 in the jar meant to help fund a scholarship honoring Andrew Hinrichs, a former cook at the restaurant who died in a wreck last year.
“We were trying to do a good deed for someone we cared for and loved,” she said. “It just breaks your heart that people are that destitute or desperate that they’re going to take a donation jar.”
Not all the money for the memorial scholarship was in the jar at the time, and upon hearing the news, her customers did what they could to replace what was stolen, she said.
She said the theft stings more than if money had been stolen from the cash register.
Not only have the break-ins rattled her and her employees, but her regular customers were upset at the news, too, she said.
“They have ideas and said they are going to keep their eyes open,” she said. “This is their place and they hang out here.”
She said during the second most recent break-in, which happened in September, burglars cut wires in an electrical box but didn’t steal anything.
The time before that, nearly $100 was stolen from a donation jar meant to help pay medical bills for a sick newborn, she said.
She estimated among all three incidents, about $1,000 was lost between donations and damages.
Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Cameron said the sheriff’s office has responded to two burglaries at the Blackberry Cafe in the past few months and a couple of thefts last year.
He said the only thefts and burglaries reported at the restaurant within the past five years were reported during 2016 and 2017.
“That’s notable,” he said. He came short of calling the crimes “unusual” for a business because there are some larger businesses that have shoplifters nearly every day, he said.
Olsen said whoever broke into the restaurant the night of March 3 seemed to be familiar with the restaurant and its security system.
The thief used one of the restaurant’s beach rocks to break through the window on the front door and climbed through the hole, she said.
Had the door been opened, the alarm system would have gone off, she said.
The thief must have ducked down while walking because the beam from another security device didn’t pick up the intruder, she said.
“I have two security systems in here, and neither one of them went off,” she said.
Olsen plans to beef up her security system and already has changed some practices in hopes of discouraging future burglaries.
She said she now has someone stop by the restaurant during closing to make the employees more comfortable.
“Most of the time, it’s just a couple of girls closing,” Olsen said. “The girls don’t want to be here alone.”
The back door also stays locked at all times now.
Olsen said she doesn’t know what else she can do to prevent burglaries.
“I can’t hire a guard to sit down here,” she said. “I’m not sure I can even afford the camera system my son wants.”
She needs to replace the front door, which she said likely will cost around $500 after she pays for glass and to get the door installed.
Her customers boarded up the door for her until she can get it fixed, Olsen said.
“It’s just a tiny restaurant and we barely scrape by, really,” she said.
________
Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
