PORTLAND, Ore. — Shattered windows, broken glass and boarded doors have unfortunately become a familiar sight and regular occurrence for businesses around the city of Portland. Some business owners have expressed mounting frustration after a series of weekend break-ins.
Early Monday morning, a window was smashed and a door damaged at a Boost Mobile store on Southeast Division. Portland police said that the burglar tried to steal merchandise but was not successful.
The day prior, in the early hours of Sunday morning, a thief broke into DarSalam in downtown Portland. Ghaith Sahib, one of the owners of the family-owned Iraqi restaurant on Southwest Alder, said that this is the fourth time they've been broken into in the past year and a half.
"There's not enough safety in downtown Portland," Sahib said.
The thief damaged windows, stole liquor bottles, pilfered some cash and took off with the cash register itself. But for Sahib, it's not about the money.
"We're talking about how much effort ... we've been running this business for nine years downtown. This business makes us laugh, this business makes us cry," added Sahib.
They now hope city leaders will hear their distress.
"I really, really encourage the city to help the small owners running businesses downtown," said Sahib. "We don't need support with money, we need support with the cleaning, we need support with safety, we need to bring downtown Portland like before."
No arrests so far have been made in either of the cases.
Portland police said that the last time they responded to a burglary at DarSalam was in July of 2020, though they received several calls for vandalism — namely broken windows — in the time since.
