Penticton business owner comforted by community support after Easter morning break-in

A Penticton business owner thought he might have to shut his doors for good after waking up to a break-in Easter morning, the second break-in his shop has had in about eight months, following a robbery that took place last fall.

Justin Chrystal’s received a call Sunday morning at around 5:15 a.m. notifying him that the alarm at his shop, Corner Vapes, had been triggered. When he arrived he found the glass front door had been broken as well as his display cases.

Harsh language, discretion is advised.

“My whole life is in here. I have three kids. I don’t have the money to fix this,” Chrystal said in a Facebook video as he walks through his store, with glass and items on the ground.

Video footage of the break-in shows two people entering the store and smashing into display cases, as well as quickly running to the back of the shop. The whole incident took less than a minute.

Chrystal hasn’t calculated the damages or cost of items stolen, but said he estimates that the two thieves stole $1,000 in items and caused between $1,500 to $2,000 in damages.

With financial issues restricting Chrystal from purchasing insurance prior to the robbery, the break-in led Chrystal to believe he would have to close up shop, but support from the community is changing his perspective.

"This morning [my plan was to] close the store, because I don't have another option, but somebody in the community started a GoFundMe and it's raising quite a bit of money. That's really going to help me be able to fix my store and upgrade security and continue on doing what I've been doing,” said Chrystal.

"More than anything just knowing that there's other people that are supporting me and saying good things really been helping brighten my day and helping me dealing with it.”

Chrystal is hoping the money from the GoFundMe fundraiser will assist him in covering the cost of damages, stolen items and adding new security measures.