Small Victory Bakery: Vancouver café repeat target for break-ins

Jan 11 2023, 7:08 pm

Break-ins and cases of vandalism have been rampant in Vancouver over the past couple of years, and it seems no business or neighbourhood has been spared.

Small Victory Bakery’s South Granville location is among the businesses that have been targeted, most recently with a terrifying break-in that occurred about two months ago, near the end of November.

A heavily damaged door, which is currently boarded up with plywood and bears a sign that warns customers to “please be gentle with our doors,” prompted us to reach out to Small Victory.

In an email to Dished, the bakery said that the perpetrator essentially followed in their pastry chef during an opening at 4:30 am.

“They basically waited on the side of the street for her to get in. Luckily she locked the door behind her, but essentially, they followed her in, she went to the back to turn off the alarm, and in that time, they yanked on the door about three times,” Small Victory tells us.

The thief pulled hard enough on the door to break both the door and the deadbolt, shattering all the glass as a result.

“Our pastry chef was physically okay, but she was a bit terrified,” they add.

The bakery has adjusted its schedule due to the break-in, allowing the pastry chef to start a bit later in the morning.

In addition to breaking the door, the culprit took about $200 from the cash box, which was later found discarded by police near Fraser and 12th.

The bakery tells us that the largest financial windfall will come from repairs to the door, though: “The replacement frame and door will cost me over $10,000.”

To add insult to injury, Small Victory has been waiting for nearly two months to have the door repaired, as supply chain issues and the long wait times currently affecting glass companies mean that any kind of repair can take weeks – hence the still-boarded-up door.

The boarded-up door at Small Victory’s South Granville location | Daily Hive

This isn’t the first time Small Victory has dealt with a break-in, as about a year ago, its Yaletown location was also broken into.

“Back then, Yaletown was getting pretty bad with break-ins and loitering – seems to have improved a bit, but definitely not back to what it was pre-Covid,” the bakery tells us.

To assist businesses in dealing with the uptick in vandalism, a “Storefront Security Grant” has been established by Downtown Van, also known as the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association.

The application window began in late October 2022 and is set to close at the end of February 2023. Businesses within the jurisdiction of this business improvement association (BIA) can have up to 50% of the cost to repair and restore storefront damages and perform preventative work.

Unfortunately, this grant only covers businesses within the specific BIA jurisdiction – an area that doesn’t cover South Granville.

With files from Kenneth Chan

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