PORTLAND, Ore. — Jasmine Nguyen has owned and operated Pharmacy.com near the corner of Southeast 82nd and Powell for almost a decade. She would not have it any other way.
"Because I have the personal time to take care of the patient," Nguyen said. "It's a family."
That family is hurting after what happened early Sunday morning. Nguyen said she woke up to alerts of a break-in at the pharmacy.
"When we got here, we saw a big hole in the window," she said.
Surveillance video confirmed Nguyen's fears as it showed somebody climbing through a front window before trashing the place.
"Some of the prescription drugs on the floor, too," she said. "We tried to go around and check if anyone was in the pharmacy but we didn't see anybody."
Nguyen believes the burglar was hiding or possibly left and came back a second time. She said she and her husband left to go get supplies to fix the broken window and when they returned, they discovered new damage.
"It's overwhelming 'cause I'm dealing with the other one," said Nguyen, referring to what happened at Hillsboro Pharmacy and Fountain, another business that she owns.
It was one of eight businesses destroyed by arson in early January. Nguyen has since opened a temporary pharmacy down the street from the one gutted by the fire.
"I guess things happen," Nguyen said. "Sometimes we're lucky and then we have to have some unlucky. That's life."
It is quite a profound statement coming from a woman who has experienced so much loss in a short amount of time. Nguyen said she has no choice but to be strong because she has a team of employees depending on her, just like she is depending on law enforcement to get to the bottom of the break-in at her Southeast Portland pharmacy.
"I'm just wishing the police can do something," Nguyen said. "This area is just getting worse and worse."
Police made an arrest in the arson case, but there has been no arrest in the break-in. Anyone with information is urged to contact authorities.