KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Wednesday marked Kansas City, Missouri's Donutology's first-ever break-in, something other local businesses around the city have been grappling with after an uptick in property crime this summer.
Surveillance video caught two individuals breaking into the shop's River Market location and stealing the shop's safe.
Donutology founder, Andrew Cameron, said the business lost $3,000 with the damages to the shop and a safe being stolen.
"It almost felt like it was our turn given everything that's been going on in the city," Cameron said.
The city acknowledged the crime outbreak, and on Thursday, Mayor Quinton Lucas proposed a back-to-business fund that would allocate unappropriated money in the city's Violence Prevention and Intervention Fund to small businesses who have recently been targeted by criminals. Businesses can now apply for grants — the city is looking to hand out $325,000 to eligible applicants — but the passage of the ordinance is contingent on the city council's full approval.
“To the question of, ‘Is this everything?’ The answer is, ‘No,'" Lucas said at a press conference on Thursday. "Again, we have a lot of work to do."
Cameron appreciates the proposed ordinance, but he calls it a "band-aid fix."
“We can keep funding and fixing our windows, but that doesn’t really stop the individuals that come in and break the windows and steal things," Cameron said.
Cameron is left looking for ways to further protect his business.
"We are exploring options of going cashless in our business," he said.
He believes business leaders, community members and the city need to come together to get to the root cause of the recent property crime. He now knows — after eight years in business — what it feels like to be one of those victims.
"It's going to take collaboration from all the stakeholders in our town to truly fix this," he said.
Cameron said business leaders in the River Market are working together to find preventative solutions. He said they're considering hiring private security and installing monitored cameras.
Despite the break-in, Cameron said he's seen the generosity of Kansas Citians this week. He's received multiple tips from people who watched the surveillance video, and on Saturday, a customer stopped by and purchased a gift card and gave it back to the business.
"We just appreciate our customer's support throughout these trying times," he said.
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