Two downtown Bellingham businesses are facing thousands of dollars in repair costs after the stores were broken into within a matter of minutes of each other early Monday morning, Sept. 23.
Mitch Kramer, owner of FixCO, a phone and computer repair shop on Commercial Street; and Nico Sanchez, owner of Black Noise Records, a record store on Bay Street, said they arrived at their stores to find an ugly surprise.
Both of the stores front doors had been smashed, and while the suspect was unable to fully break into FixCO, the suspect did break into Black Noise Records and made off with a few items. The break-ins occurred around 4 a.m., Kramer said.
Sanchez said he was notified about the break-in around 8 a.m. Monday when the building owner called him.
“Luckily he didn’t take too much stuff,” Sanchez said. “It’s been an unfortunate situation that people would choose to do that to local and small businesses like mine and Mitch’s.”
Kramer, who had already been up for hours after a fire alarm went off at his apartment complex, said one of his employees called him around 9:30 a.m. to say the front door had been smashed in.
Nothing was taken from FixCO because Kramer had a glass door with a protective film on it.
“It takes like 10-15 minutes [to get through the film] so it did its job,” Kramer said. “[The suspect] got frustrated … he took off when he realized he couldn’t do this.”
Both men filed police reports.
Claudia Murphy, a lieutenant at the Bellingham Police Department, confirmed reports had been filed and while there are no specific suspects in either case, investigators are working to identify someone.
Thefts and robberies downtown have remained static compared to this time last year, according to the Bellingham Police Crime Statistics dashboard. In September 2023, there was one robbery and 14 burglaries reported in the City Center. As of this month, there were two robberies and 13 burglaries reported.
Kramer moved into the downtown FixCO location in November after having built his business from a tech repair shop out of his house and smaller spaces into an actual brick-and-mortar shop. He’s also been able to hire employees and think about expansion opportunities.
“Business has really picked up, it’s been great,” he said. “The exposure is what I’ve wanted for a long time. This is my dream shop.”
Sanchez and his sister started Black Noise Records three years ago. He’s the only full-time employee. The other three employees work part time.
“I was under the impression that we were such a small business that nobody would even consider breaking into our business,” he said.
Friends of Sanchez and Kramer have started GoFundMe accounts for the two businesses so they can recoup financial losses from fixing the windows to upping security measures. Neighboring businesses have also lent support.
“It’s been really amazing to see how much support and love that we’ve gotten from the community since this recent break in,” Sanchez said.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
