A devastating blow for a small Riverview business.
For the second time in as many years, the Ice Cream Barn on Pinewood Road was hit by vandals.
“I got a call from a Good Samaritan who was walking by on Monday morning. They mentioned the barn looked broken into because there were a lot of ice cream tubs on the front lawn, and that the door was still open,” Owner Will Campbell told our newsroom.
Campbell says when he went to check it out for himself, he discovered the extent of the damage.
“When I got there, it was a pretty big mess. They had ended up taking all the ice cream out of the freezers and displaying it on our front lawn and the other side of the road. They had ripped the cameras off the walls and the WiFi system off the shelves. Kind of just knocked everything off the shelves and took much of our inventory, broke the window and kicked the door in.”
In the winter, the Ice Cream Barn serves hot chocolate. The business was last hit by thieves and vandals in December 2022.
Campbell says they reported it to RCMP and have provided video camera footage as well.
“It’s a little hard to talk about it. It’s been just really devastating for me with the fact that this now happened twice. We had made some upgrades last time with our locks and installing cameras and things like that. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough, and it sets us back,” Campbell adds.
He says they lost about 90 per cent of their ice cream and inventory because the freezers were left open and the rest was left outside.
“We’re starting from scratch again, which in the middle of the summer can be really hard to get that much inventory back, all at once. It’s been a big challenge but that’s our highest priority.”
Campbell says everyone has worked hard to get things cleaned up, so they can reopen.
“We’re still trying to figure out how much support we can get from the insurance company, but it’s still very new. We haven’t gotten it all sorted out yet,” Campbell says.
It is his fifth year operating the Ice Cream Barn, and he adds that they are just trying to move forward as normal as possible.
“We had to close yesterday, and it was really devastating. We got a one-star review online because we had to close, an extra beat down. It’s always really devastating to upset the customers, we do our best. But unfortunately, there was nothing we could do. So that was hard. It’s been really discouraging,” Campbell expressed.
He says the community has been very supportive, and he offered thanks to everyone who has helped out.
