The blowtorch flame cast a halo of heat on Oko Jewelry’s double-paned, laminated glass door.
After letting the glass cool, two masked men shattered the posh East Burnside Street shop’s threshold about 4 a.m. last Thursday, then reached through to the deadbolt and let themselves in.
“They got a safe,” one man cried, according to security camera footage obtained by the Oregonian/OregonLive.
“Safe’s way too dangerous,” his partner responded. “Let’s go, let’s go!”
The men, who were inside the business for less than two minutes, absconded with bags of jewelry worth at least $10,000 and left the damaged door ajar.
Their brazen burglary could be chalked up as a one-off, the price of doing business in a big city. But shopkeepers say the blowtorch bandits, and other repeat thieves like them, have become familiar foes who seem to operate with impunity.
“The guys who broke in, they didn’t come because they were hungry,” said Lisa Mangum, who opened Oko Jewelry a decade ago. “They were pros.”
Frustrated with what they say is a lackluster police response, business owners are creating their own networks of support — ramping up security measures and sharing videos of suspected crooks across invite-only online groups with hundreds of members.
Playing defense isn’t cheap.
Portland proprietors said a rush order to board up broken windows can cost $700, and a scissor gate installation runs about $6,000. Meanwhile, replacing larger window panes or welding bars onto storefronts can easily set businesses back a couple grand.
Portland’s publicly available crime data, which doesn’t distinguish between commercial and residential properties, shows the city’s burglary figures dropped about 10% from 2020 to 2021, in line with the overall decrease in many crimes nationwide. Portland burglaries were up slightly, however, when compared to the city’s five-year average.
A Portland Police Bureau spokesperson said the agency has shifted detectives away from investigating property crime, instead turning their focus to crimes against people. The bureau’s five property crime detectives, two of whom are trainees, mostly investigate white-collar offenses and significant crime rings.
“These days, we are not able to offer the kind of service people expect or that we wish we could provide,” Sgt. Kevin Allen, the spokesperson, said in an email. “Unfortunately, similar to many other things, it boils down to our critical staffing shortage.”
Allen said it’s “rare” for burglars to use blowtorches, and he didn’t know whether investigators had established a link between the Oko Jewelry heist and other similar cases.
While Portland crime data isn’t yet publicly available for 2022, an informal survey shows plenty of cause for frustration.
Roughly 70 of 112 business owners who responded this month to a survey by Portland consultant Sarah Shaoul reported experiencing vandalism or a break-in during the last year and a half. Roughly 20 said their shops had been broken into five times or more.
Shaoul, who runs a business membership organization called Bricks Need Mortar, said she frequently hears complaints about repeat thieves returning to the same commercial districts, as well as professional criminals who use blowtorches.
“It’s the same folks, night after night,” she said.
Jody Howard, owner of ORO Jewelry, thinks the men who broke into Oko Jewelry last Thursday also used a blowtorch to burglarize her Southeast Portland storefront twice in recent weeks.
The burglars’ tactics were similar, she said, and surveillance photos posted on Oko Jewelry’s social media accounts have her convinced the men responsible for the break-ins are one and the same.
“I literally wake up at three in the morning every night and look at my cameras,” Howard said.
She checks pawn shops, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for the stolen goods, had custom bars welded to her shop’s door and is working with her landlord to install a roll-down gate for additional security.
Her efforts haven’t been enough.
Howard said her shop has been burglarized eight times in the past year, including the Dec. 15 and Jan. 1 heists. The burglaries have worn down her business — to the tune of nearly $30,000 in stolen jewelry and repairs.
“It’s a nightmare,” Howard said. “I have two kids and this is how I support my family.”
Nicole Whitesell, founder of the Adorn boutique clothing line, said burglars with crowbars and a blowtorch also targeted her Southeast Division Street store twice this month.
“I just got pepper spray alarms,” she said, noting that she plans to let her Division Street lease expire because of the break-ins. “When those guys walk into my store again they are not going to come back.”
The heists are among the latest setbacks for Whitesell, who said her Division Street and downtown shops have weathered $30,000 in burglary and riot damages. She also lost $2,500 after someone knocked out a lock and grabbed the cashbox at her Northeast Fremont Street store last Thursday.
“It’s not just the money and the time,” she said. “It takes a toll on your body and on your mental health.”
Mangum, the Oko Jewelry owner, has also taken a sizable hit.
She paid $1,200 for the laminated security film that melted under the torch last Thursday. And while her insurance will cover the wholesale value of the stolen jewelry, it won’t reimburse her for the $6,000 she plans to spend on a metal accordion gate or the additional cost of installing window bars.
Friday morning marked her daughter’s seventh birthday, but instead of making blueberry pancakes together, Mangum instead rushed to her turned-over business.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s much support from the city,” she said. “You just cross your fingers and do what you can yourself.”
— Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane
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