Vancouver business owner paying out of pocket to replace repeatedly broken windows

The owner of a downtown Vancouver barber shop is frustrated after being woken up at 5 a.m. Sunday by the news that the window of his business was smashed for the fourth time in two years.

Angelo Khoshaba says he got a text after the alarm went off and soon after watched the surveillance video on his phone.

"The guy came on a bicycle, looked around a couple of times and he stopped by here. He had something in his hand, he threw it at the window, smashed the window. He walked around like he was waiting for things to clear," he tells CTV News.

"The police cruiser happened to come by just at that moment. So the police noticed the broken glass, so they stopped. The guy hopped on his bicycle and left. And that was the end of that."

Surveillance video provided to CTV News shows a man in a hoodie and face mask pacing outside of the building, walking back and forth several times. At one point he approaches the front door and peers inside before throwing something that shatters the glass of the front window.

The window was boarded up Sunday afternoon, something owner Angelo Khoshaba says cost $950. Replacing the window, he says, is something that will take months and come at his own expense.

"We can not even file an insurance claim because this is the fourth (time) in two years, so if I file an insurance claim they will deny me. The last one was $8,600 from my pocket. I don't know how much this will cost," he says.

"And maybe in a week the guy will come back."

Previously, the door – which now has a retractable metal gate blocking it off – has been smashed twice, Khoshaba says. Another time, he says, the front window was broken and someone came in and took more than $1,000 worth of products.

He says the landlord is hesitant to put bars on the windows because it would compromise the look at the storefront.

"When you have that beautiful look, obviously you're vulnerable," Khoshaba says.

While he says a police report was filed, and officers are generally helpful and sympathetic, Khoshaba says he's frustrated that no suspects have been identified, arrested, or charged.

"What bothers me is there are absolutely no consequences," he says.

In the first quarter of 2022, Vancouver saw a 6.8 per cent increase in property crime compared to the same time period last year, according to police data. In the district that includes downtown, it was up by 16.4 per cent. However, 2021 also recorded the lowest number of property crimes over the past decade, the department's report says.

The Vancouver Police Department has confirmed the incident is being investigated and that officers noticed the broken window when patrolling early Sunday morning.