Businesses on alert after rash of burglaries plague Bellingham’s

A rash of burglaries in Bellingham’s historic Fairhaven District has business owners on high alert.

Most of the spots that have been hit are locally-owned small businesses.

What has people so upset here is that this is a tight-knit community of businesses, sadly making them easy targets.

It is still hard for Cami Grichel to watch these crooks breaking into her jewelry and art store in late December.

“It’s very unusual and it’s very unnerving,” Grichel said, “and disturbing for all of us.”

Indeed, she is not alone.

“They broke this whole door out, got in there,” said Theresa Dalton.

Her Firehouse Cafe and Events Center was hit less than three weeks ago.

“There’s a couple of businesses that (have) gotten hit twice already,” Dalton said. “And we’re like, we’re over it. These are small business owners that work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. And we’re breaking even. But senseless, thievery like this, we’re done with it.”

But not before a lot of damage has been done. This list shows just how many Fairhaven businesses have been hit since early December. Bellingham police say their relative size may be making them attractive to crooks.

“They may be banking on the fact that small businesses sometimes have lesser of a security system or maybe not as (many) cameras,” said Lt. Claudia Murphy, Bellingham Police. “And they may be wrong about that. Because some of our small businesses have the best cameras and the best security systems.”

Indeed, Cami Grichel says her systems thwarted them.

“They weren’t able to get in, no,” she said. “And the alarm system did what it was intended to do, scare them off.”

And Theresa Dalton has this warning.

“We’re looking for them,” Dalton said. “Oh, yeah, a lot of people are looking for them.”

She was asked what that means. “That means that the reign of terror needs to stop,” she shot back.

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So far, no one has been caught.

But Lt. Murphy says they are keeping up patrols in this neighborhood. And she is encouraging businesses that don’t have cameras or an alarm system to get them, to do what they can to stop these crooks.

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