PHOENIX (AZFamily)— A small business owner is trying to get back on her feet after she says someone stole thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from her downtown Phoenix store.

The seamstress says she no longer feels safe in the place she once loved.

Kelsey Garner, owner of KS Garner, has been a seamstress in the Valley for 12 years and has grown her business tremendously through social media.

She creates outfits from vintage and second-hand fabrics that suit every figure. But because of this fame, she is afraid that someone has targeted her.

“It feels like they weren’t just pieces of clothing for me. They were me. They took little pieces of me,” Garner said.

It was a heartbreaking sight for Garner as she entered her downtown Phoenix store Saturday morning.

“I saw a piece of fabric sticking out in my closet and I was confused because I thought, ‘I didn’t leave that there yesterday,'” she said. “And there were clothes everywhere.”

Dozens of items were missing, including designer dresses that had taken her hours to make, the camera equipment she uses for social media and the vintage sewing machine her husband gave her as a wedding gift.

“With everything included, it was almost $20,000,” she said.

For Garner, what she took home was more than just a piece of fabric. Many of them were one-off pieces she designed for a fashion show in Austin earlier this year.

“Right before this show, I was in a creative crisis,” she said. “And these pieces brought me out of that crisis. I put everything I had into it and this fashion show was one of the most beautiful moments of my career.”

She says the perpetrator has robbed her of her sense of security in the places she loves.

“I now have my dog ​​come here and look for him before I come in, and that just doesn’t feel good,” she said. “That’s my job.”

Garner feared this could ruin her business life.

“When all this happened, I was devastated. I told myself this is the final nail in my coffin,” she said. “I had a rough year and felt like this was a sign that I should quit and do something else. I was at the lowest point in my career.”

But what happened in the days that followed gave her reason to keep going.

“Someone ordered from Israel and I thought, ‘Do you know me? How is this possible?'” she said in awe.

She receives support from her community, her customers and her social media followers.

A GoFundMe page raised thousands of dollars for her in just four days.

“The worst thing is when someone steals and invades your privacy, but the best thing is that the community comes and supports you and helps you get back on your feet,” she said.

As a thank you to her community, Garner plans to host free sewing workshops in the coming months.

She has now filed a report with the police, but cannot provide a description of the perpetrator because there are no functioning surveillance cameras in the building.

If you know or saw anything, call Phoenix Police.

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