PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) – People gather around a Portland delicatessen after it was vandalized.
Food Fight! Grocery is an all-vegan store on Northeast Halsey Street in Portland, and it has been without refrigeration for days.
“The copper pipe that goes up the wall there was stolen. And cut out,” said Beth Sullivan, owner of Food Fight! Grocery.
Sullivan said she opened the store Friday morning and made a disturbing discovery.
“They removed the copper and aluminum from the cooling unit, cut it open and basically took the whole thing,” Sullivan said.
The cooling unit had been destroyed overnight.
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“I’m sure the material was worth $100 at the most,” Sullivan said. “Just replacing the cooling unit is $10,100, and then we have to put a fence around it, put lights and a camera. We’ll probably spend another $5,000 by the time we get that done.”
The display box in the store, which was cooled by the system, has been out of service since then.
“We sell anything that isn’t vegan but can be made vegan, and we sell it here,” Sullivan said. “We do a lot of soft serve ice cream and shakes. We can’t sell those right now because they’re not on sale. We usually have a selection of vegan meats, vegan cheese, vegan pudding, milk and fruits and vegetables.”
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They said the positive thing about this tragic incident is the love they have received from the community and neighboring businesses.
“The amount of people that came out on Friday after we announced that we needed to sell as much of our refrigerated products as possible was amazing,” Sullivan said. “Just the other vegan businesses in the area that reached out and offered us refrigerated space to store stuff so we don’t lose absolutely everything has been amazing.”
Portland police said they received a report of the incident.
The owner said he is looking into insurance but still needs to consider the loss, a deductible and the additional safety measures required.
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