Burglary forces Regina coffee shop to close on Sunday

A Regina coffee shop was forced to shut its doors on Sunday after a the space was damaged and equipment was stolen during a burglary.

33 1/3 Coffee Roasters, in the city’s Cathedral neighbourhood, was broken into overnight on Sunday, leaving owner Mark Shmelinski and his team dealing with the aftermath instead of serving customers.

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“Unfortunately, when we went to open the shop this morning, we noticed that the door was open, a bunch of stuff was missing, and the place was kind of a disaster,” Shmelinski said on Sunday.

He said several important items were taken, mostly electronics needed to run the business, including the point-of-sale system, safe, computer equipment and more.

The loss meant the shop couldn’t operate on Sunday, forcing staff to close for the day while they cleaned up and began figuring out the next steps.

Shmelinski said the impact goes far beyond what was stolen.

“It’s a hit everybody has to take, right? It’s time out of our days. Sundays is actually one of our busiest days in that neighbourhood,” he said.

“We needed to close today while we sorted everything out, not only the equipment and all of that, but it’s just stressful, right? It’s a very inconvenient and stressful thing to go through.”

He added that the financial strain is only part of the story.

“There’s money that’s lost, equipment that has to be replaced, time to deal with insurance and all of those things as well.”

The break in comes as some Regina business owners continue to deal with property crime concerns in central neighbourhoods such as Cathedral, Downtown, North Central and the Warehouse District.

Despite that, Shmelinski said this is the first major incident his business has faced since opening just over a year ago.

“It’s actually been really quiet and really nice,” he said.

“The odd thing of graffiti, or people rummaging through the trash, but for the most part it’s been a really quiet neighbourhood for us as a business.”

Shmelinski said he plans to reopen the business on Monday, once essential systems are back in place.

While incidents like this one are frustrating, Shmelinski said the crime won’t change why the business opened in the first place.

“I think we, as business owners and local business owners, get the opportunity to impact people that live right in our city and impact our community every day,” he said.

“So just keep going, and don’t let things like this discourage you from continuing to do really good things.”