‘This should be the jewel of Vancouver’: Gastown store’s windows broken 7 times in 3 months
Global News
"When people know they can get away with things, with lawlessness, they’re going to do it," said Gastown business owner Jackie Haliburton.
On the corner of what used to be one of Gastown’s busiest intersections, Jackie Haliburton’s clothing store is wearing the aftermath of the property crime and vandalism that escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Four of Angel Vancouver’s five windows at 2 Powell Street are currently boarded up and awaiting replacement glass after break-ins – while the fifth is partially shattered due to a recent break-in attempt.
It’s the only window Haliburton has left to display her Desigual brand and she’s keeping it free of plywood so the public doesn’t think her business is closed.
“I’m really fed up,” the owner of Angel Vancouver told Global News.
Haliburton said in her first 21 years in business, her windows were only broken three times.
“Since COVID started, there’s been eleven and seven of them have been in the last two and a half months.”
Haliburton has glass insurance but pays a $500 deductible on each smashed window, and said it costs approximately $1,000 every time broken glass needs to be boarded up.
“I can’t afford to come to the store every day and have a $1,700 window broken,” she said.
